War Crimes
by Pongo0614
Summary: The Doctor has been running from this for a long time. Finally he is put on trial for his war crimes. It isn't what he has done what he fears, it is where he is going.
1. Chapter 1

_Me again, with another story._

 _I got this idea from another fanfic, The Legend of Preevos (that was brilliant and was never completed and then was deleted.). I would like to note that even though it has been deleted, this story is nothing like theirs. It just got the idea off of it._

 _This story could be seen to be set after Last Christmas but before The Magician's Apprentice._

 _I hope you like this one as well as News of the Universe._

 _Please note that not all chapters are going to be this long. This is more than likely an one off._

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

"So where next?" Clara said as she pulled her damp hair back into a ponytail. She knew it would dry quicker down but after the last adventure, she didn't want it to get in her way again.

They had just been to Skoth. The planet in itself was beautiful with loads of waterfalls. It was rather water based which Clara didn't mind, she had always been a strong swimmer. But like every adventure they went on, they ran into trouble and ended up having to hid in a swamp to evade capture. It absolutely stunk and she was sure she could still smell in on her even after having two showers.

The Doctor moved next to her as he fiddled with the controls.

"Oh I am sure we will find somewhere."

"Please no swamps this time."

He chuckled.

"I am being serious. I had to throw those clothes away. I really like that shirt."

He shook his head before the TARDIS shook. He quickly grabbed onto the console while she grabbed the railing. "Alright girl, what's up?" The Doctor said, his eyebrows high on his forehead.

Suddenly the TARDIS when dark. She could hear the Doctor move about as he was trying to work out what was going wrong while her eyes adjusted to the change. "Doctor, what happened?"

He took a moment to answer her. "She has shut down."

She took a few steps towards the console. "Why would she do that?"

"Because she thinks she is in danger."

The TARDIS shook again but didn't stop. Clara gripped hard to the console, trying to keep upright. It was a struggle and she was using all her strength, until the Doctor came alongside her and placed his body next to hers. She was sure he was the only thing keeping her standing until they both fell on the floor.

The TARDIS lit up and they both looked at each other.

"Okay?" He asked.

"Yeah, you?"

"Never better."

He was the first to get up. Clara followed him slowly before joining him by the doors. "What do you think is out there?"

He flashed her a wide smile. "Let's go and see shall we."

* * *

They walked out to what looked like a Colosseum. It was the only way that Clara could think to describe it. They had exited the TARDIS to a bright light. There were people … well aliens all around. She recognised a few, like there was a few zygons, a cyborg and some people that looked as though they were from the Rings of Akhaten. Many of the others she had no clue what they were.

"Oh, either it is Christmas or my birthday." The Doctor said.

"Unfortunately for you Doctor, it is neither."

Clara turned and smiled up to the voice. "Porridge."

"That is Emperor Longstaff to you." One of his guards said.

Porridge looked up at him. "She can call me whatever she likes." He turned back to her. "Clara, I hope you are doing well. Ignore this idiot."

She just smiled up at him. It was good to see him again.

"Did you pull my TARDIS out of orbit?" The Doctor asked.

"We had to. Apparently I shouldn't have let you go last time. I must say, I like your new face. It reflects your age well. This is your trail for your war crimes during the last great Time War."

"I don't have any war crimes. If I remember, I was the one to try and stop the time war. I said no more."

Clara remembered that day fondly. Not only had they built the greatest pact between the Zygons and Humans but he had also had a weight lifted off his shoulders. A weight that had been on him since his ninth regeneration. He wasn't the last of his kind any more. They were out there, along with his planet. They were out there, waiting for him to bring them back.

"You destroyed your own planet. Most people would call that mass genocide."

Clara felt her heart sink and could see that it had hit the Doctor the same way.

"No, no, no." He said, his accent thickening. "No, I saved Gallifrey. I didn't press that button like I thought I did, like you think I did. I did what I always did. I was a doctor. I save Gallifrey at the same time as the Zygons and the Humans made their pact."

"I was with him." Clara said to help his story. "I was the one to tell him to be a doctor." She gave a short laugh. "It was amazing. All 13 of them, saving Gallifrey at the same time."

"Unfortunately, your word is not enough. If you did save Gallifrey, then where is it?"

"Where is Missy when you need her?" He muttered.

She knew she had to do something to help him out. He was going to go down for a crime that he didn't commit.

"Look even if Gallifrey was destroyed that day, which we know it wasn't. What the Doctor did wasn't in the name of the Doctor. He wanted to stop it. That's why he said no more to it. He didn't want to fight in that war. I would ..." Clara had a flashback to when he left her to make the decision over the moon. "If anything, he was brave to do it. How many of you would be able to destroy your own home planet to make sure that the rest of the universe was safe?

"I know I wouldn't be able to do it. He has aged since then. He spent 900 years on Trezalore. This is the man that can never stay still. But he did. He has had over a thousand years to think over that day. Do you not thing that he had tortured himself enough without you sentencing him?"

She was stopped by the Doctor turning her.

"What?" She asked.

She only realised what he was doing when her eyes started to close.

"Don't fight it. Please don't fight it." Was the last thing he said to her.

* * *

 **Earth, 26th June 2017, 11:38am (2 years since the Doctor's Trial)**

For Clara, it had been two years since she last saw the Doctor. She woke up in her bed and hoped that everything that had happened had been a dream. She called the TARDIS many times just to get the answer phone message. It used to ring for a while but now it just went straight to it. Even though she still had hope that he was coming back to her.

Maybe this would be the time.

The corridors were filled with smoke and Clara didn't believe that her lungs were fairing any better. She felt extremely light head and her coughing didn't help the situation. She had just checked to see if everyone was out. Well she was more checking if anyone had got stuck in the toilets or something stupid like that. Unfortunately that had put her to harm.

She fell to her knees and then on her side. She closed her eyes.

If she pictured her death, she had expected it to be on some foreign planet, doing as her echoes had done, saving the Doctor. It was be an honourable death and he would get back in his box and never forget her. The last thing she expected was lying in the corridor of the school she taught at, dying not because of an alien had blown up the school but because something in the kitchen had caught alight.

She acknowledge that a pair of arms had picked her up but she didn't really think anything of it. Someone had found her and was saving her. It had happened a few times before. She just listened to his breaths as he manoeuvred them through the halls. The only reason she knew they were outside was because of the gravel underneath her palms as he lied her down.

How she wished she could have willed her eyes open. How she wished she could see her saviour.

"Look after her." A familiar scottish voice said.

Now she really had to open her eyes. Her Doctor was there and had saved her. She rolled over and forced her eyes open. She wanted to call out to him as the back of his coat disappeared out of sight but her throat was too dry.

* * *

 **Earth, 22th December 2018, 02:03am (3 **½** years since the Doctor's Trial)**

 _Maybe Christmas drinks weren't the best idea in the world._ Clara thought as she almost stumbled off the bus.

She knew that she had passed her limit. She had passed it after the fifth double vodka and lemonade. Why did her friends insist on a double or nothing rule when it came to drink?

She was struggling to walk in a straight line, that was what probably made her an easy target. She wasn't far from where she lived when an arm came around her middle. She would have screamed out but he had already covered her mouth with his hand, and he didn't actually mind the fact that she was licking his hand. He started to drag her backwards and she blamed the alcohol for not being able to fight back properly.

She gave a massive sign of relief when he let her go. She turned to see him disappear down an alley with someone dragging him by his throat. She straightened her dress and walked over to the alley. She wanted to thank who ever had saved her.

Clara watched as her saviour had the man pinned up against the wall. She couldn't really see much, they were both in the shadows but she was sure that he was saying something to her attacker. Her saviour let go of the man and he dropped to the floor. He turned to look at her.

She must say that she was a bit disappointed when he ran in the opposite direction when she had only taken a step but it confirmed her suspicion. Her saviour must have been the Doctor. She just wanted to see him. Didn't he want to see her?

Clara looked at her attacker before realising he didn't look like he was going to be moving for a while. She moved out of the alley and went back on her original plan of going home. She would phone the police from there.

She just hoped that it wouldn't be too long before she saw the Doctor again.

* * *

 **Earth, 19th June 2020, 02:30pm (5 years since the Doctor's Trial)**

The TARDIS sound blasted from her phone. She had recorded it once when the Doctor had dropped her off home. There were only a few numbers that she had assigned that ringtone to. The Doctor being one of them.

"Umm Miss, you know we aren't allowed phones in class."

Clara tried to laugh it off. "Yes, okay maybe I should have ..." He voice trailed off as Kate's name lit up the screen. Kate hadn't called her since the Doctor left. Why would she call her now? Unless …

"I will be right back." She said as she answered it and stepped out of her classroom. She heard the volume level increase. "Hello."

" _Clara, ummm … You don't happen to be free at all do you?"_ Kate said.

"I am teaching at the moment. Why? What's up?"

" _The Doctor. He has just materialized into my office. He is asking for you though."_

A wide smile lit her face. He was back. He had made it back to her. "I am on my way."

" _I thought you were teaching."_

Clara spotted Adrian coming down the corridor. "I can get someone to cover." She said and then hung up. She went back inside her class room and retrieved her helmet before leaving them without an explanation.

"Adrian!" She shouted. "Do you think you could just cover me please? Just I have … a thing come up."

"Yeah, sure. But what ..."

She kissed his cheek without thinking. "You are a lifesaver. I owe you for this." She ran down the corridor towards the exit.

* * *

He was just staring blankly at the wall in front of him. She had never seen him like this before. It had taken a lot for him to get into the car to take them both back to her flat. Kate said that she would drop off her motorbike later. She stood in the doorway of her kitchen, holding a cup of tea for him, just watching him. He hadn't moved since she sat him down there. Had she told him not to move and he had taken it literally?

She walked over to him and moved some things off the coffee table before sitting on it. They were close but not too close. Her knees knocked his a couple of times as she handed him the cup of tea. She wrapped one of his hands around it and made sure he had it before she started to move away. He stopped her movement by placing his other hand on hers.

That was when Clara noticed the bracelet that he was wearing. She was sure that he hadn't been wearing it before so must have been given it when he went to wherever he went. She really didn't like not knowing what had happened to him.

"I forgive you for what you did. I forgive you for sending me away."

She noticed blood on his white shirt and stood up but he still held her hand. She turned back to look at him.

"Hey, I am just going to get you some clothes to change into and something for your injuries. I know that you are a Time Lord and heal quicker than use pathetic humans but I think it needs looking at."

He just blinked at her before allowing her to take her hand from his grip. She had never seen him like this before and she hated it. She just hoped that he would turn into his usual self soon because this scared her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

She was a lot heavier than she looked. His Clara in his arms. But maybe not in the right way.

The Doctor fell on to his knees as she slipped into unconsciousness. It was the right thing to do. He had to stop her before she got too involved. Her speech was wonderful, he had to give her that. It just showed him that she did know him best in the universe. He placed a kiss on her forehead before lying her down.

"Make sure she gets home safe. I picked her up from her flat in London on 13th June 2015. She needs to go back there. She has many people relying on her."

"Of course Doctor." Porridge replied to his request.

"See because unlike Clara, I know how intergalactic courts work." He paused. "I have not found Gallifrey and therefore I cannot prove that I saved it instead of destroying it. At this moment in time, I am guilty until proven innocent and our word isn't going to be enough."

He looked around as they all started to chat amongst themselves. He had realistically given them what they wanted. This was going to be one short trial. But the thing is, they forgot that he had once sat in one of those seats and given his verdict on some poor fool. It was an awfully long time ago but he could remember what happened and where he went. He could deal with not finding Gallifrey. If anything, he fears where he was going to go. Not as much as he did Trezalore but it wasn't a planet on his 'to see' list.

He stopped thinking as the chatter turned to mumbling.

"I am sure that the council would like to know, how many people were there on Gallifrey the day you destroyed it?"

"I … I don't know. I never counted." He was telling a slight white lie.

"You must know a number or at least be able to estimate it." Someone from the other side of the room said.

"He is the Doctor. We must think like him." Another said.

"The children. What about the children? He must know how many children there was on Gallifrey on that day?"

The Doctor felt his hearts stop. It was the only number he did know. "2.47 billion." He muttered.

His voice had been so small no one had heard him

"Come on Doctor. You must know a number. How many children?"

"2.47 billion." He shouted. The number echoed around the hall.

Everyone had fallen silent by the outburst. He could see that a few people wanted to say a 'told you so' but refrained from it. He looked around at them all. Clara had one thing right. How many of them would even think about destroying their home planet? How many of them would think about killing 2.47 billion children to save a hell of a lot more?

The Doctor faced Porridge. He tried not to look down at Clara's unconscious body. It would hurt to much. He had only just got her back and now he was leaving her again.

"Do what you must do."

He watched Porridge sight heavily before starting. "I, Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI, sentence ..."

"Look at me." He interrupted. "I would like you to look at me when you sentence me."

Porridge looked at him for the first time since he had said the number. He realised that Porridge believed him. It was something that he didn't want to do. Maybe he was the only one that truly understood what was at stake that day.

"Your name Doctor? What is your real name?"

He turned quickly and gave Clara a sad smile. Oh it would only be his Clara that could get him an extra cycle of regenerations by telling the Time Lords that his name was the Doctor.

"The Doctor. That is the name I have lived by for the past 1500 years so it is the name that you will call me."

Porridge started again. "I, Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI, sentence you, The Doctor, to 2.47 billion seconds on Ankou."

"Thank you." The Doctor said as he was teleported away.

* * *

"Hello Sweetie."

"Rivar!" He said, going particularly Scottish. He shouldn't have been so surprised to see her on the other side of the bars.

"What have you been up to now?"

"Oh this is an old crime."

"We haven't met yet have we?" She said, giving him one of her trademark smiles.

"No." He hadn't moved from the bed. It was probably best that he didn't now. "I … I am heading to Ankou. This is only for the night."

"You have heard the rumours."

"I would be stupid not to."

"Doctor only 5 people have been released from there. That is only 5 people to walk from there alive. I heard that the last one died hours after he left anyway."

"I know River." He picked at the blanket underneath him. "But I have something to go back to. How many of them do you think have someone that they need to see and be with again? I need to get back to Clara."

"Clara? Your latest companion. Guessing after Mum and Dad."

"Yeah." Was all he gave her. He thought that she would get jealous if he told her that he thought that she was the person that knew him best in the universe. Or how much he loved her.

"Well if you need anything while you are in there, you will have to contact me."

"I don't think I will be able to contact you."

"Oh you will." She gave him a wide smile before either returning to her cell or going on some adventure.

* * *

Realistically it started how it was meant to go on. The Doctor woke up suddenly when a bucket of cold water was thrown over him. He was definitely awake now. He was taken from his cell and put onto the spacecraft.

He could think of about ten different ways that he could escape but he knew that there would be an intergalactic manhunt for him. He had to do his time. For once, he couldn't escape this.

They came into orbit of the planet and he took a good look at his home for the next 2.47 billion seconds.

Ankou was located in the Amerath System. It was the fourth planet from its rather large sun. It was about the same size as Earth but it had an unusual large axial tilt that caused extreme seasonal changes. The extreme north and south experienced harsh winters, where it would fall well below 50 degrees celsius, and the equator experienced extreme heat all year around. It made only suitable for those who could deal with the extremes. Between them it was milder but still uncomfortable for some. The make up of the atmosphere made it lethal to humans. That was why they build Stormcage Containment Facility.

The Doctor had no idea what to expect and he didn't know if that was a good thing or not.


	3. Chapter 3

_To the guest review._

 _Thank you for telling me that. It is a complete coincidence really. I used a planet generator and just mixed and matched parts of the names and descriptions that I liked. Ankou was the name that just jumped out at me._

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

If someone had told her 5 years ago that she would be lying in bed with the Doctor, his arms around her waist, pulling her as close to him as he could, while he slept, Clara would have asked what planet they had just come from. But that was the situation she was in now.

He rest his head under her chin and she was sure that she could feel his double heartbeat fall in time with hers. They were both on their side. She had been awake for a while but couldn't wiggle herself out of his iron grip. For a man so skinny, he was strong.

She sighed and brought her hands up to his hair. She dragged her fingers through it. Just because it seemed like an impossible thing to happen, didn't mean that she was going to let the moment go to waste. She had the Doctor in her arms.

Part of her was happy that he made her sleep in the bed with him. She had given him her room while she was going to sleep in the spare room. She hoped that he would be able to be okay with just the smell of her. It had been one very weird evening.

Mainly it had started from when he wouldn't let go of her hand but it only seemed to get weirder from then. She had taken off his coat and shirt without him moaning once that he didn't need it and that he would heal quicker than humans. The shirt seemed clean but it had become stained with his blood and some of the dirt on him. She doubted that it would ever come out.

She had gone to go and get more things and practically gave him a sponge bath on the sofa. She might as well have made him get into the bath. But then he would have allowed her to leave him and that might have got a bit awkward. Once she had got all the dirt and grime off him. She tended to the cuts that littered his chest, arms and back. She could see that some of them had already scarred.

She felt so bad for him She had no idea what he could have gone through. She wanted to know but she also didn't want to push him. He wasn't the same person that had left her.

Clara somehow managed to pull him closer when he started to whimper in his sleep. It broke her heart to hear it. Something bad must have happen for his to be like this. He was a shell. She was glad that he could show her this sort of weakness but it was horrible to witness. He was her hero. He was meant to be the strong one between them, always knowing what to do. It was her turn to take that role. It was her turn to be a Doctor.

His grip of her loosened and she took the opportunity to get up. She just needed a few moments away from him to decide what she needed to do.

* * *

Clara could hear the water bubbling in the kettle but her thoughts seemed to be making the same amount of sound. It wasn't like the Doctor was ever dependent on someone. The Doctor was someone that you dependent on … well everything except being on time. For a being a _Time Lord_ , you would have thought that he would have a good sense of time.

She needed a plan. She needed him to get back. She had looked up his symptoms and all the internet was saying was that it was PTSD. Could Time Lords get PTSD?

Maybe that was it. Maybe she need to get him into an environment where he felt safe, where he knew all the exits were. The only thing was, the TARDIS was at UNIT. For once, she would love the blue box to be filling up her living room. Maybe Kate would allow her to pilot it to hers. It wasn't a bad idea. It was just to one side of London to the other.

She picked up the kettle and poured the hot water into her favourite mug. She used a spoon and squeezed the tea bag on the edge of the cup before taking it out and throwing it away. She added the milk and took a sip. Oh how a cup of tea seemed to make everything feel better.

Clara looked up as her phone vibrated against the counter. She saw the name and instantly answered. She need to offer him an explanation.

"Adrian."

" _Clara, is everything okay? I would have called you yesterday but I thought that you might have needed some time."_

She smiled at his concern for her. He was one of the reasons she hadn't gone mad in the last 5 years without the Doctor. "Everything is … well I wouldn't say fine but everything will be fine."

" _I don't understand."_

"He is back. The Doctor is back."

" _Well that is great."_ He paused. _"Isn't it?"_

"Yes that is why everything will be fine. He … He isn't the same person that left me. Instead of me depending on him, it is going to be the other way round for a while. He will get back and be the man that I knew once more. I know he will bounce back from this but ..." She trailed off.

" _You just don't know how long that will take."_

"Exactly." she paused for a moment, wondering if she should continue. It wasn't that she didn't trust Adrian but she knew that the Doctor didn't really like anyone knowing about him. "Just I would love to know where he went and what happened to him to make him like he is."

" _Hasn't he told you?"_

"No." She whispered. He hadn't really said anything. The only thing she had heard him say was her name when she had arrived at UNIT. He had quickly gathered her up in his arms when he saw her.

" _I am sure he will."_

"I know." She looked around her kitchen. "I should probably check on him."

" _You can call me at any time Clara, if you need me."_

"Thanks Adrian." She said as she hung up.

She picked up her tea and went to move to the living room when she saw the Doctor. She jumped slightly.

"Sorry." He said in a small voice.

"No it's fine." Clara assured him. She gave him a smile to tell him that everything was okay. "Breakfast?"

He shook his head.

"Well I will put some toast on for us." She wondered whether he would put his arms around her as she was making it. Whether he would pull her to him as he had done in bed. She was slightly disappointed when he stayed standing in the doorway.

She pulled him over to the sofa once it was ready. She sat him down before draping her legs over his. He placed his hand on her thigh. She tried not to think anything of it but she could feel the warm of his hand. Oh how they could be so much more. She was his impossible girl and he was her impossible man.

She rested the plate on her knees and smiled slightly as he took half a slice and nibbled on it. It was a start.

"Sleep well?"

"Better than I have."

"Plan for today. I will check your bandages and injuries. If they are all good then we can wait till Monday to get you some pain relief. Don't lie, I know that you are in pain."

He subconsciously started to rub her leg before he nodded. She placed the plate on the table before moving herself there as well. She made sure that their knees touched. He seemed calmer when he was touching her. She could have laughed. This was the man that told her that he didn't like hugs.

Her smiled dropped when she saw the blood on the bandages. He was worse than she thought.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry this wasn't up yesterday. I was at a Karate tournament and was going to upload when I got home, but I had a massive headache and could bare to look at a screen for too long._

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

"Doctor please."

He shook his head and tighten the grip on her hand. He had both of his hands over one of hers and he was even trying to pull her away from the door.

"What if something happens to you?"

"Then come with me."

Again, he shook his head.

Clara stopped struggling against him and placed her free hand over his. "Look, I don't have any bandages and we have been through this, I know that you are in pain. It is just down the road. I will make sure that I look left and right before crossing the road. I will make sure that I am safe. You have taught me what I should do to make myself safe. I can look after myself. Hey, I may even be back before you know it if you just let me go now."

His grip loosened on her hand and she took the opportunity to lead him back to the sofa. She grabbed a pen and paper.

"If you need me, call me."

He took the piece of paper out of her hands and scrunched it up slightly by how tight he was holding it. She leant forward and pressed her lips to his forehead.

"I will be back before you know it."

* * *

It had taken him ten minutes to call her. She was luckily in the shop before he did. She needed him anyway. He knew what the chemical name for aspirin or whether it would kill him.

"Sorry what was aspirin again?" She said as she looked at the back of the Nurofen packet.

"Acetylsalicylic acid."

"I am guessing it wouldn't be good if it says do not take if you are allergic to aspirin."

She could hear him breathing down the phone. "No probably not."

Clara picked up the next packet and the next, and the next till she had seen the back of all of them. "Doctor, don't lie to me. How much pain are you in?"

She could hear him debating about answering her.

"It feels like my body is on fire."

"Okay well they all say do not take if you are allergic to aspirin. I will ask someone about it but I think I know what they are going to say. I will get a packet and we will have to see how you react to it. You can sort of heal yourself from aspirin, can't you?"

There was a thump and Clara rushed straight away to the tills. She had her phone in between her shoulder and ear, trying to get a response. She threw a tenner at the woman behind the till and told her to keep the change. She hung up her phone and ran as quickly as she could home, only stopping to check the roads as she said she would.

She ran up the stairs to her flat, saying a quick hello to one of her neighbours as she went. Her key was already in her hand as she reached the door. She pushed it in and turned it, opening the door. She closed the door behind her and threw everything down by it.

Clara didn't stop until she saw him. The Doctor was slumped against the wall. The phone had slid out of his grip. She put the phone back on the receiver and bend down beside him. She picked up his hand and placed two fingers on his wrist. She closed her eyes as she counted.

He had only passed out. Everything was going to be alright.

* * *

All Clara wanted was five minutes to herself, that was all. The weekend had been manic and she hadn't even found the time to do any marking. The Doctor, the man that doesn't like hugs, had clung onto her for dear life. She was still certain that he thought that he was going to lose her. She tried to reassure him that she was going nowhere.

She sighed into the hot water. It was the first time she had to try and relax since he had showed up. Not that she was complaining. She loved the fact that he was back in her life again. Everything felt wrong when he wasn't.

The door handle rattled against the top of the chair. Unfortunately for Clara, her bathroom lock had broken ages ago and as she had not foreseen the Doctor to want to be near her all the time, hadn't bothered to change it. It was only her knocking about in that flat. It wasn't like she was going to walk in on herself. She had told him where she was going.

"I am fine." She shouted.

She was grateful when he stopped trying to get in. She could hear him and he leant against the wall and moved down it. She had never realised how thin her walls were until now.

"I want to be with you."

Clara couldn't stifle her groan. She had just got the water to the perfect temperature and could feel her muscle just start to relax with the heat. She would have to finish her bath sooner than she had planned. She debated with it. She wondered how long she could get away with before he tried again.

"Give me a few minutes." She replied as she got up to get the soap.

She had to remind herself that he wasn't the same man. If he was, he would be in his TARDIS, finding an exciting planet for them to go and explore together, finding their next adventure. It had been so long that Clara smiled at the fact that they could be going back into space sometime soon, running around, saving a planet. Oh how she was itching to do that all again.

She lifted herself out of the bath and grabbed the towel to started drying herself. She moved the chair out of the way and exited the bathroom with the towel wrapped around her head and her dressing gown on. She pulled the bottom of it closer to her when she saw the Doctor where she thought he would be. He looked up at her from his place on the floor.

"We cannot keep going on like this. I have to go into work tomorrow. Let me get something on and I will meet you in the lounge. Yeah? So we can talk."

* * *

Clara felt more comfortable in her checked trousers and her tank top. She would have kept her dressing gown on but she felt too hot. She sat cross legged on the sofa, facing the Doctor, who was sitting like her. Their knees were touching. Nothing had been said since she had said that they needed to talk.

"Have I done something wrong?"

There was a little bit of fear in his eyes, which made her place her hand on his knee.

"No, you haven't done anything wrong. I ..." She paused trying to think of the best way to phase it. "I want to understand you. I want to understand what happened to you to make you change so much. I want to know why the man that told me he didn't like hugs any more, cannot do a thing without being in touching distance of me. I want to help you Doctor. I want you to … well be you again."

He moved uneasily and Clara wondered if it was discomfort from pain or what she just said.

"I am not complaining. I just want to understand." She said, gently. "You don't have to tell me everything. That can come with time. But give me something to … work with."

The Doctor sighed heavily and took her hand into his own before starting his story, well the parts that he was going to let her know now.


	5. Chapter 5

_Form now on every other chapter is going to be on Ankou and finding out about the Doctor's time there._

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

 **Ankou, Day 1, 9:40 (Sentence Done: 0 seconds)**

He didn't know what to expect as he left the spaceship and arrived on Ankou, his home for the next 2.47 billion seconds or for however long he survived.

Maybe he was expecting the orange jumpsuits that he had seen on one of the shows that Clara liked to watch. The only thing that they gave him was a bracelet. The screen on it lit up. _THE DOCTOR_ flashed up before his sentence.

"Welcome to Ankou. We hope that you don't enjoy your stay."

The Doctor was lead off before he could reply. He had a great comeback as well.

The guards took him down the stairs and corridors before opening a cell and pushing him in.

It wasn't very big. There were two bed, one on either side with a small walkway between them. He was sure that there must be something else in there, but it just seemed like it was the beds.

"Dia You must be my new room mate blo." The Malmooth came out of his hiding place. "Dia Sorry, thought that they were coming to take me somewhere else blo."

"You are a Malmooth. I am guessing you are called Diablo."

"Dia Yes, I am, how did you know? blo."

"Your custom of splitting your name is going to be very irritating."

"Dia Sorry blo."

The Doctor held up his hand as he went to continue. "I know it is your custom and that it was be deemed rude to some if you don't. The Doctor by the way."

"Dia The … The Doctor? blo." He stammered. "Dia The War Hero blo."

"Suppose so."

"Dia Then what are you in for, if you don't mind me asking? blo"

The Doctor looked down at his bracelet before looking back up at him. He called him the war hero but didn't know what he had done. "I don't want to talk about it."

He went to sit down on one of the beds when Diablo caught his arm and started tutting.

"Dia I won't be the only one to ask. It must have been bad for you be in for that long blo."

"I said I don't want to talk about it." He said maybe a bit to harshly as he pulled his arm out of his grip.

"Dia Well I only have 197,600,000 seconds left of my sentence. I have done half of mine so far blo."

It was the first time that he had tried to compare him to the first Malmooth he had met. Chantho had mentioned that she was the last of her kind. But then that was at the end of time. He allowed himself to smile slightly. It had been when he had a different face and Martha. Poor Martha, he really didn't treat her well.

Diablo was definitely not healthy at all. His clothes hung off his body and the Doctor knew that he was going to end up like the rest. Which was a shame really. He seemed like he was a nice lad.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 1, 10:00 (Sentence Done: 2,600 seconds)**

They had been called for lunch only after him being there for half an hour. He had got so used to Earth times that he forgot that other planet had different tilts and times therefore. Here there was 65 seconds to the minute, 80 minutes to the hour and 20 hours to the day. It was something he was sure that he would get used to.

The Doctor had taken the ring off his finger was was idly playing with it. Now thinking, he should have probably given it to Clara for safe keeping. It was really the only part of home that he had. The ring was the one that his wife had given him … a few lifetimes ago. He couldn't remember when he had taken it off but part of him was glad to find it again when he was trying to work out his style for this face.

Maybe if he had given it to Clara, it would have given her confidence that he would come back to her or something to remember him by if he didn't.

He literally only had it in his open palm for a second before he was going to put it back on his finger when it was snatched out of it.

"Hey give it back." He said, shooting out of his seat.

He glared at the man as he looked at it. Mainly he was trying to work out what species he was. It looked familiar but then again he had been to many different planets over his time and met the same number of species. The thing that bugged him was that he was humanoid.

The man started to laugh. "Where did you get this from?" He held the ring up.

The Doctor lent forward to grab it but he held it back. "Its mine."

He started to laugh harder. "It can't be yours. I know that inscription from anywhere. It is Gallifreyan."

There was one of two ways that he could carry on. Either play an idiot and say that he bought off someone or try and tell them that he is the Doctor and the last of the Time Lords.

"I know."

"Gallifrey was destroyed in the Time War. The Time Lord never left Gallifrey. Well save for one but then he just meddled in everything. I even heard that he returned home to fight. No one would have survived. So where did you get it from?"

"Why does it matter?"

"You have no clue do you. The Time Lords did nothing to help the universe. They had the power over time. They could have changed so much. They could have made sure that the Daleks were never created. They did nothing to help us so why should we remember them."

If anything, it felt like a punch to the gut for the Doctor. He had hated himself for years about what he thought that he did that day. It made him wonder how many thought that it was good that Gallifrey was gone.

The guard came around, telling everyone to get up and move back to their cells. The man threw him back his ring.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 1, 11:00 (Sentence Done: 7,800 seconds)**

"Dia you don't mind me asking about the ring. Do you blo?"

"I suppose you are going to ask me anyway." The Doctor was lying on his back, looking at it again.

"Dia is it yours blo?"

"Yes."

"Dia but Gallifrey ..."

He didn't allow him to finished. "Don't you think I know." He snapped. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Sorry but … that is what I am in for. I was the one to 'destroy' Gallifrey. But I didn't." He looked over at him. "I saved it. It is some pocket universe somewhere, waiting for me to find it to bring it back. The Dalek ships destroyed themselves. I didn't press that button. I have been the man that regrets and forgets and maybe after 1300 years I am the man who accepts."

"Dia the amount of time? Blo."

"The number of children on Gallifrey on that day." He looked at the bracelet. The number hadn't really changed and it was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. 2.47 billion.

"Dia I am in for armed robbery. Not that I actually carried it out. I wouldn't be here if I did blo."

"Why?"

"Dia have you heard of the Bank of Karabraxos? Blo."

The Doctor laughed. "Yes. Clara, me and two others became the first and only people to successfully break in. Actually thinking about it, we probably haven't done that yet. Well we have but it isn't known about. Time travel and all that."

"Dia Clara? A girl to go home to? Blo."

He blinked at him a couple of times before realising what he meant. So many people had suspected that they were father and daughter that it was weird for someone to think that they could be together, like when he had the chin. But then Diablo hadn't met her and it was very unlikely he ever was.

"No, no, no." His accent thicken. "It's not like that. We are friends. The best of friends." It kinder hurt him to say that. She was more than his friend. She was his everything. The one thing he wanted and needed to protect most in the universe, even if she didn't want to be.

"Dia right blo." He said, emphasising the i.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

She sighed heavily as she looked at her phone. She had to ask for his advice on it. She knew that she couldn't leave the Doctor. Not in the state that he was in. He needed to be near her, for his peace of mind and hers as well.

Her thumb hovered over the number and she tapped it when he whimpered. She made sure it was dialling before she put it up to her ear. She ran her free hand through the Doctor's hair to try and soothe him. She liked his hair when it was longer. The look suited him and felt as soft as it looked. After his regeneration, she would never have expected to have this sort of closeness with him again.

" _Clara. Everything okay?"_

"I … no not really."

" _Do you need me to cover your classes for you?"_

"That's it. I want to come into work. I really need to come into work. I don't want to leave my students. Not that you wouldn't do a brilliant job ..."

" _No I understand. So what's the problem?"_

"The Doctor needs me and I don't know whether … I cannot leave him on his own."

Clara assessed the situation that caused her to make this call. They had fallen asleep on the sofa after the Doctor had started to explain his time on … Ankou. Well that's what Clara thought that he had called it. He had started to break down and she had told him that he had said enough. She had brought him to her and he had buried his head into her neck. Her neck was stiff from where her head had been propped up by the armrest. He had his head on her stomach. He was mainly on his side, save for his legs which were hanging over the other armrest.

" _Clara?"_

"Sorry. Do you think I would be able to … to have him sitting in the back of my classroom? It is the only way that I think I will get away with it. I have no year 11s or 13s because they have all finished now. He will probably just stay quiet or help with the discussion. He has more than likely have either read the book or met the author."

" _Umm … Clara, do you think that is a good idea?"_

"He needs me Adrian. The kids need me. I cannot leave both of them. They have both been a part of my life before. Why can't it be like that again?"

" _If you think that you can make it work, then go for it. Just good luck trying to get it past Mr Armitage."_

"See you in a bit then."

Adrian sighed. _"See you in a bit."_

Clara hung up and smiled slightly because it was Monday. Monday was when the board of Governors came in for their meeting, headed by none other than Ian Chesterton. It was on one of the days that Clara thought that the Doctor would never return to her, that she had found out that he had travelled with him. On those days, she would turn to him and he would tell her of the adventures that he had. She realised how her Doctor was a bit like his. But then she had to constantly remind herself that they are the same man.

She started the process of waking him up, which was harder than expected, especially when she didn't believe that he slept at all.

"Come on sleepyhead." She said as he started to groan. "I have to get to work. So I will get changed then find something for you to wear. I will check your bandages before you change and then we have breakfast before setting off. Sounds like a plan?"

"Do you have to go to work?" He asked, sleepily.

"Yes, I cannot let them down."

She watched him swing his legs back over the armrest and sit up. He stretched and she could see that the night on the sofa was hurting him as much as her. She followed him in sitting up before standing and making her way to her bedroom. She knew that she must have one of her dad's shirts lying around. It was the best thing that she could do for now.

* * *

"He isn't coping well." She argued.

"Clara, it is nothing to do with us. He worked here for a little while but there is nothing we can do to help him."

"I just need to keep an eye on him. He will just be at the back of the classroom."

Mr Armitage sighed. "I would prefer it if he wasn't. What if parents find out that some … older man, who is not a teacher or an inspector, has been sitting in the back of a classroom? We would have so many complaints."

She watched as the Doctor stood up from his place outside the office. She was about to tell him to sit down when Ian entered the room. Maybe that was why he stopped.

"Is everything okay?" He asked.

Clara allowed herself to smile slightly. "My friend, the one sitting outside, has just lost his last living relative and he hasn't coped well with it. He hasn't left my flat since Friday. I am just really worried for him and his health. I just hoped that he could sit in the back of my classroom just for my own peace of mind. I don't think I could trust him on his own."

Ian looked between her and Mr Armitage. At that moment, she knew that he knew who was sitting outside now.

"I am sure it will be fine. It is nearly the end of the year anyway. Any problems we will have to deal with them won't we?"

She looked behind her to see Mr Armitage nod. She thanked them both and smiled widely at Ian. Good old Ian. She knew that she would have to think of some way to repay him for it. She walked out of the office and nodded her head at the Doctor. He gave her a small smile before she placed her hand in his and pulled him along to her classroom.

"Was that …" He started

"Ian Chesterton. Yes. I hear that he is an old companion of yours."

"I practically kidnapped him."

"He did mention that."

"So he know about you and I then?"

"He kept me positive on the days that I thought I would never see you again. He told me that for a man that doesn't like goodbyes, you do like saying them. That's why I knew that you would come back. We never said goodbye properly."

He smiled but shook his head at her. Her logic could be seen as correct.

"Maebh, what are you doing here? Why aren't you enjoying your time off?"

She felt the Doctor stop as he saw her. She knew that his attack eyebrows would be creased in confusion. She could see his hand raise up to the height she was in year 8 and the height she was now as a year 13.

"I was meant to give you this as a thank you for being such a wonderful teacher but I kept forgetting." She said, holding out the present. "I was in the area and Mum said it was best to just pop in now or otherwise you would never get it."

"She was shorter." The Doctor whispered to her.

Clara couldn't stop herself from smiling. "Thank you." She said as she took the present off her.

"I better get going. Thank you again for being such an amazing teacher."

She just carried on smiling as she watched her go.

"She was definitely shorter."

Clara allowed herself to laugh. "Well that does happen when time passes." She started walking again and heard the Doctor run to catch up with her.

"How long has it been? How long since I … sent you home?"

She turned to look at him. "I could ask you the same question."

"I'll answer if you answer."

She snorted at his childishness. "Around 5 years."

He didn't answer her straight away. Instead he mumbled to himself about space travel and light years and this that were lost on her. "50. I was there for 50 years."

She nudged him with her arm. "Hey it could have been worse. It could have been like Trenzalore. What you were on there for 900 years weren't you?"

He just nodded.


	7. Chapter 7

_It was mentioned last time that the Diabol parts were hard to read. I haven't gone back and changed them but I have tried something different this chapter. Lets see if this is better._

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

 **Ankou, Day 2, 9:00 (Sentence Done: 101,400 seconds (19.5hrs))**

The Doctor was in his cell, lying on his back on his bed, twiddling his thumbs. This was the main reason he didn't stay in on place for too long. He got bored easily.

At least on Trenzalore, he had things to do. Whether it was fighting off a threat or making toys for the children, there was always something to do.

There was nothing here.

Well there was but he didn't want to do that just yet. Diabol had told him that for the first week, the 'newbies' don't leave their cell. That wasn't helpful for him.

He had already tried to amuse himself in calculating complex mathematical equations in his head and remembering all the laws surrounding physics and time travel. He had even tried to name all the people he had met over the time that he had travelled.

But had only passed part of the time. The thing was, he had to get up at the same time as everyone else to have breakfast. They weren't going to have separate times for them. He had already been up 6 hours.

He looked at his bracelet to see that the number was practically the same as it was yesterday. Well it would change slowly, such a big number like his.

There was only one person that he could think of that would take his mind off the boredom right now and that was Clara Oswald.

He expected that a day had passed for her as well, so it was possible that it was Thursday for her. If it was the same time as well, she would have year 10. He had memorized her timetable so that he knew when he could fit in a quick adventure between classes. He wouldn't chose the planets where he was certain that something could go wrong. They were saved especially for Wednesdays.

It was also nearing the end of term, so it meant that she would be teaching one of two things, To Kill A Mockingbird or Pride and Prejudice. She had said that she had a choice between To Kill A Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men. After a short trip to see Harper Lee, while she was writing it as well, he had successfully talked her into teaching it. He loved the story.

He only realised what the time was when Diabol was thrown back into the cell. The Doctor watched as he tried to get up on his shaky legs just to fall back down again. He walked over to him and helped him up and to his bed. He quickly gave him the once over.

"Dia- There is no need to do that. I know that I am dying -blo."

The Doctor didn't even look up at him. How many got halfway through their sentence and realised that they weren't going to finished the other half? How many were happy just to get to halfway?

"There is no need for that attitude. You cannot give up now."

"Dia- You are new -blo."

"No, I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and dreamer of improbable dreams." He said as his younger-self said it from his memory. He thought that he had said it with Chinny's voice.

"Dia- There is being optimistic and there is being realistic -blo."

That was the moment that he knew that Diablo had given up. The odds were stack against him.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 2, 10:00 (Sentence Done: 106,600 seconds (20.5hrs))**

He had tried to avoid him. He was still trying to work out what race the humanoid was. Then he would know why he wanted the Time Lords to be forgotten. He said something about the Daleks that sparked his curiosity. He had asked Diablo but he said that he had no idea.

The Doctor watched as his food landed on the floor as the man pulled his hand from underneath the tray.

"Oh, look boys. We got one in here for the long run." He whistled. "That is a long time mate. What did you do to deserve that?"

Telling Diablo had been easy. But he knew that everyone to know once he said in front of him.

"Something terrible." He said as he tried to walk away.

"You know, I am having trouble placing what species you are. The ring has thrown me. I would have thought you were like me." He said, jumping in front of him.

"I am trying to place you as well."

"I am a Thal and proud. The Daleks may have taken Skaro as their own but the universe knows that it belongs to the Thals."

"You will have a bit of trouble finding Skaro." He could have hit himself. Obviously he was a Thal. It had just been so long since he had run into one that he thought that the Daleks had won and they had all be slaughtered.

"Why's that?"

"The Time War … lets say it was as cruel to Skaro as it was Gallifrey."

"Cruel to Gallifrey? Come on mate, we have already gone through this."

"And I remember when Skaro was a place of intellect." The Doctor knew that he shouldn't rise to it but if the Thal wanted to support his home planet, then he was going to as well. "It must have missed you."

It was only after his fist hit his nose was that the Doctor regretted saying what he did. He must admit that he gave a good punch. He held his nose as the Thal was dragged away by one of the guards.

Well there was one thing that he knew now. The man was a Thal which would be the reason why he said that the Time Lords never stopped the Daleks from being created.

He wiped his nose as blood started to come out of it. He grabbed it and clicked it back into place. It was only day 2 and he had already had broken his nose. He just needed to keep out of trouble from now on.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

If anything, he was quite proud of himself. The Doctor found himself sitting in the staff room, on his own, for 27 minutes and 49 seconds. He hadn't moved from the spot that Clara had left him. He hadn't tinkered with the kettle or the microwave. He was just waiting for her, like she told him to. The main reason he hadn't was because he was scared to do the wrong thing.

He knew that this wasn't what he would normally do. He wasn't domestic in any meaning of the word. But he didn't think that he was well enough to safely navigate around the universe. He knew that he usually ran into trouble but whether he would get himself out of it as easily was his biggest worry.

He started to tap his fingers on the arm of the chair. It wasn't that she was late but he was starting to lose his self-restraint. He wanted to fiddle and tinker and makes things better. He tried to fight the urge because he knew that Clara wouldn't like it if he broke the kettle. She would probably be the one who would have to pay for a new one.

He looked up as the door opened to reveal Adrian. The meeting had obviously finished, so where was Clara?

"She will be along in a minute." He said as if reading his thoughts. "The Head of English just wanted a word with her."

The Doctor nodded but knew that he wanted to say more. He always looked like he wanted to say something to him.

"As we are on Clara ..." He started.

"As we are on me what?" Clara said cheerfully as she entered the room.

The Doctor stood up as soon as he heard her voice. It may only been less than half an hour that he had heard it but it was like music to his ears. He hadn't realised how much he liked hearing it.

She smiled at him and gestured her head to the door. "Ready to go?"

He smiled at and nodded.

"Lets get home." She said as she placed her arm through his.

It was something that had just become a natural thing to do. He did really understand when he had come accustomed to her touch but he was glad that he did. And if holding her was anything like kissing her, then he had no idea why he was stopping himself from that simple pleasure.

But then he remembered why. Why he told her that he wasn't her boyfriend. She was already too precious to him and searing her more into his hearts would make him to the unthinkable when she either left him or even worse, die on him.

He followed her out as they started their journey home.

* * *

It was a pleasant walk home. Clara was just glad that the weather was as it should be for the time of year. It was warm but not hot. They made small talk as they went. The Doctor would ask her how her day went even though he was at the back of the classroom. He was getting better. Maybe not well enough to let her go but well enough that she wasn't constantly worrying about him.

It was a bit of a surprise to see Kate standing on her doorstep. She looked concerned as they approached.

"You could have called me. I didn't realise that you still had to go to work. We could have kept an eye on him."

Clara opened the door and let her in before she replied. She could feel the awkwardness that the Doctor felt. They were going to be talking about him in front of him.

"Doctor, why don't you put on the kettle? I will do everything else." She smiled at him as he went to go and do that. "It wouldn't have helped if you had him while I worked."

"So how is he?"

Clara didn't really know where to begin with that question.

"I suppose not good for what we know he is meant to be like. He won't leave me. What I mean by that is, I always have to be in his line of sight. It is like he thinks I am going to disappear on him. He barely eats but then again that is nothing really new. He probably used to go for days without eating while he was tinkering with the TARDIS or finding a new planet. He is sleeping more but he wakes up ever few hours due to nightmares." She sighed heavily.

"We can offer some support if you need it Clara."

"It isn't that. I have help at school because of Ian Chesterton. But I think Adrian has noticed a change and I think he was going to say something to the Doctor today. I am coping and the Doctor … Well the Doctor has never been the one to open up to anyone about anything. I know he trusts me but I would just love to know more about what he went through."

Kate opened her mouth and Clara knew what she was going to say. A smash stopped her from speaking as they both rushed to the kitchen. Kate was only following Clara but she started to think the worse. After he blackout on her the first time, she had been waiting for him to do it again.

She crouched down next to him as he was picking up the broken pieces of one of her mugs. He looked at her and started to mumble an apology. She took the pieces out of his hand and placed them on the top. She took his hands in hers and told him not to worry.

Clara had totally forgot that Kate was there and stood up, making the Doctor do the same. She made her way underneath his arm and hugged his side.

"I was only trying to help."

"I appreciate it." She could tell that he was still looking at the broken mug on the side. "It's only a mug. I can buy another one."

"It was a simple task. It just fell out of my grip."

"It will come. You will adjust."

She rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Part of her wanted the adventure and to jump back into the TARDIS and runaway from earth, to get the adrenaline pumping around her body again. But then again part of her liked this domestic side of the Doctor. Yes they would go back to having the adventures but she knew that she would treasure this time as much as them.


	9. Chapter 9

_Right, believe me when I say I don't want to do this but also believe me when I say I have to do this._

 _I am going to be taking a 3 week break due to my upcoming exams._

 _I didn't do as well as I hoped last term and as I am in my second year at uni, the results that I get now matter and I really want/need to do better this time around. I don't particularly want to leave you half way through this story by I have to. I hope that you guys understand._

 _I will be back posting this story on 10th May where I will be updating this story more regularly._

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

 **Ankou, Day 6, 3:00 (Sentence Done: 590,200 seconds (1wk, 13hrs and 40mins))**

He registered that there was noise around him but he was having a very pleasant dream for once. It was more of a memory rather than a dream. He was remembering when Clara and he was in Victorian London, just after his regeneration. How she said that if he was still the Doctor, he would have her back. The thing was, he would always have her back, whatever.

He bolted up as the freezing cold water hit his skin. He could feel that his eyes were wide as he looked around for the danger that he thought he was in.

"Breakfast time. Better not be late." The guard said as he left.

The Doctor shook himself to clear the last bit of sleep from himself. He dragged his hands through his hair as he walked out of his cell and towards the cafeteria. He got a tray and whatever they seemed to call a breakfast before sitting down and leaning his head on one of his hands.

It wasn't unusual for him to go for long periods of time without sleep but for some reason he was sleeping more than usual but never feeling as recharged as he should.

He sleepily picked up the spoon and started to eat the … gruel. It had to be gruel. There was no other word to describe it.

He jumped when the guard slammed his hands down on the table.

"Just to let you know, you have been deemed fit to work. Follow everyone else down and you will be put in line."

The Doctor dragged a hand down his face before shaking his head and eating. He needed to eat and wake up. That was not good news.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 6, 9:40 (Sentence Done: 624,000 seconds (1wk and 1d))**

The Doctor heard his back click as he tried to stretch his aching shoulders. He walked into his cell and tried his best to massage them. All he wanted to do was have a hot shower and get into bed and fall asleep. He was exhausted.

He had forgotten that the planet was rich with diamonds and that they were the biggest supplier of the said diamonds in the universe.

He groaned as he struggled to get his coat off. It was harder than he swears that it was normally. He started to brush it down. The dust from the mines covered it. He had made his mind up. He wasn't going to wear it again unless it was necessary.

It was weird for Diabol to walk into the cell rather than being thrown in. Something was really wrong or maybe he had just got better. The Doctor couldn't kid himself, it was the first option. He just couldn't understand why he was smiling.

"Dia- I have been told I am not fit to work any more -bol."

He may have only been there for just over a week but he had become accustomed to Diabol's company.

"You're not dying on me." He said.

He had lost so many people over his time alive and travelling among the stars. He was actually starting to become sick of it.

The banging on the door stopped any conversation that was going to follow.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 6, 15:40 (Sentence Done: 655,200 seconds (1wk, 1d and 6hrs))**

The only day in which he didn't want his food to be pushed out his hands and on to the floor was today. He was sure that the Thal was out to get him. He still couldn't believe that he couldn't see that he was a Time Lord.

He allowed himself to be pinned up against the wall. There was no point in struggling. He didn't think he had the strength to struggle anyway.

"Now I want some answers. You won't get away with it this time."

He looked over the Thal's shoulder to see that every single guard had their backs turned.

"Look, you are learning. The guards think that they run this place but a bribe here and there and then it is us prisoners that do. Who's Clara?"

If anything, he was quite taken back by the question. It wasn't the one that he had been expecting. He grunted as the Thal punched him in the gut.

"You keep saying her name at night." He leant forward and whispered. "I can always find a way to get her in. We could have a little fun."

"She is a friend." The Doctor said breathlessly.

"Oh please. She must be more than that."

He didn't want any more harm to come to him, so when the Thal leant back to bring up his knee, he decided to talk.

"She was the first face this face saw." He shouted.

The Thal pushed his shoulders back and grabbed on to his throat. "What do you mean the first face this face saw?"

"You must be able to feel it now. I am the one thing that you despise. The double heartbeat." He started to tap on the wall behind him. "You know that's what you can feel. And yes you could argue that there are a number of different species that have a double heartbeat." He dropped his voice to a whisper. "But I am the last of the Time Lords. You may be from Skaro. You may of hated the Daleks. But you never destroyed your own planet to stop them. At least I stopped the Time Lords."

The Thal started to put pressure onto his throat and his survival instinct kicked in. He released him when he realised that it was doing no good before promptly leaving.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 6, 18:00 (Sentence Done: 668,200 seconds (1wk, 1d, 8hrs and 40mins))**

Diabol had fallen asleep a while ago and the Doctor lied there as the lights were turned out, leaving the room in near darkness. There was a little light coming through the small windows from one of the moons but it wasn't enough.

He stared up at the celling unable to sleep. The Thal had been in while he slept and it scared him by what he could have given away. Realistically he should be able to fall asleep easily but it just wouldn't come.

He hated that he was reminded of Clara and he hated even more that he had been reminded of his time on Trenzalore. He had tortured himself enough, hadn't he?

He really didn't want to look but somehow the bracelet came into his eye line and he read the number on it. _2,469,331,735 SECONDS._ That was barely any of it. He tried to remind himself that he had only been there for a week. He knew that he was going to be in for a long time. He knew that he would have to get used to it. He did it once before. He spent 900 years on Trenzalore of his own choice.

But then he was just punishing himself rather than the universe doing it for him.

He groaned loudly. This would have been the perfect time for Clara to be there. She would tell him what he should do and be thinking. She was good at that.

But then thinking of her just made him realise what he has left behind.


	10. Chapter 10

_*Clicks fingers* Sorry._

 _Hey guys, I am back and raring to go._

 _Before my little break, I was updating this once a week but now as I have finished it, I will be updating this three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday). It is just something that I do._

 _So I hope you are still all with me and let's get on with this story._

* * *

 **Chapter 10**

It was weird how easily they had fallen into a routine. The Doctor had finally let go enough that she went to work and he would walk her home. They always talked about little things. Clara would come home and find that everything was how she left it and left wondering what he had done all day. She would cook dinner for herself and make a sandwich for him. They would then curl up on the sofa, she would do her marking and then they would go to bed. It was a weird routine but it was a nice one.

"So what have you been doing all week while I have been at work? Just my kettle, microwave and oven are all still together and working."

She turned to see him scratching the back of his neck.

"I kinda asked Kate to put a chalk board in your spare room. I hope you don't mind."

Clara laughed before turning back to her dinner. "So what have you been doing with your black board? Working out an equation? Or whatever you do with the ones on the TARDIS?"

"I … I have been trying to put together..." He said, apprehensively.

"I get it." She interrupt him. "Trying to put together what happened. I suppose it was a long time."

She didn't expect him to answer. She was grateful that he had told her what he had but there always seemed like there was more to the story. It was a pretty touchy subject and Clara didn't ask any more because she didn't want him to go backwards.

But then she knew it was better to get these things off your chest. So she had started to ask him small questions and saying that he doesn't have to answer. Sometimes he did and sometimes he didn't. It didn't matter. She would get it out of him in the end.

She dished up her dinner before finishing off his sandwich.

"Why don't you like using cutlery any more?" She asked. It was her question of the day. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

She turned around with his plate in hand. He shook his head at her as he got up out of one of the chairs in her small kitchen. She looked at him and he took hold of the plate.

"You look tired. Are you not sleeping again?"

He chuckled. "You get use to being tired after a while."

She gave him a sad smile as she let go of his plate and picked up hers. "Not if you don't have to be tired. You don't have a schedule that you have to comply to. You could sleep all day if you needed to."

"I still don't understand it. You are malfunctioning, I swear."

She turned away slightly and laughed. She turned back to him with a genuine smile and she shook her head. "I am not, as I have told you many times before." She let her smile drop slightly. "I don't ever want you to change."

He moved out of the kitchen and into the living room. "That might be a little hard. What don't you want me to change?" He threw over his shoulder.

"Your oblivious nature towards human emotions. Chinny was so much better." She said as she followed him.

The Doctor sat down on the sofa and looked up at her. "Is that what we are going to call my last regeneration? Chinny?"

She laughed as she joined him on the sofa. "What else could we call him?"

"Bowtie?"

"I prefer Chinny. Anyway you knew who I was talking about, like if I said Sandshoes, you will know who I am talking about."

"Next you will saying Granddad."

"Is that what you called the Warrior then?"

She watched as his eyes glazed over. From that moment, she knew that the Time War was still a touchy subject. He had not only beaten himself up for it, but been imprisoned for it. She meant what she said that day. She would never have the same strength as him to put the universe first instead of his home planet. But then maybe he had always been the odd one out.

"I am not oblivious to human emotions."

She moved to push him slightly. "To more than one you are."

"A smile is meant to be happy. I don't understand the point of a sad smile. It goes against what a smile means."

She actually loved his logic with it. It did make some sort of sense. She turned to him and studied him for the moment. He looked better than when she picked him up from UNIT but there was still more to be done before he would be the man that she knew and loved.

She gentle traced her fingertips along a scar running across his jawline. She felt him tense as she did it.

"How did you get that? I haven't noticed it before."

"I don't know. I … can't remember." He stuttered out.

She dropped her hand and the conversation.

* * *

There were a few things that Clara was going to make sure happened before her and the Doctor went off travelling in time and space again.

The first one was that he had to gain some weight. He was skinny to begin with and she knew that he regularly forgot meals, to which she would have to remind him to eat when she was on board the TARDIS. But his time on Ankou had lead to him, well being even skinnier. It was actually horrible to see and Clara just had flashbacks to a video that she watched at school all about anorexia. It was one of the things that she could do for him. She would purposefully leave packets of biscuits lying around, knowing that they would be gone by the end of the day.

Secondly, they needed to become less dependent on each other. There was always the chance that something could go wrong. It could end in disaster rather than victory. The less that they depended on each other, the less that could go wrong. Not that Clara could see the logic in it once she had thought about it more.

The third thing was that the Doctor needed to become the Doctor again but that was going to take its time.

She pulled the covers back and joined him in bed. She laid one her side and faced him.

"Talk planets."

He copied the way she was laying, "Sorry?"

"Tell me about the planets we should visit when we get back travelling again."

He smiled and then fell into his element. He talked for easily an hour about all the places they should go. It was beautiful to see him talk that way again, the sparkle in his eye about the prospect about travelling. He wasn't born to sit still.


	11. Chapter 11

_A few replies to a few reviews._

 _LovesToRead2016 - I am glad that you are enjoying the story. I will try my best to keep it up._

 _Guest reviewer - Don't worry about the scar. It isn't new as he got it when he got back._

 _Right back to Ankou._

* * *

 **Chapter 11**

 **Ankou, Day 25, 8:00 (Sentence Done: 2,592,700 seconds (4wk, 4d, 18hrs and 40mins))**

If there was one thing that the Doctor knew he had missed, it was feeling the sun on his skin.

He had his shirt rolled up to his elbows and a few the buttons undone. He would have rolled up his trousers as well but thought better of it. He managed to find a small secluded stop, right in the sun. It was good just to relax. He had his eyes closed.

He was slowly opening and closing his hands to get use to the movement. An older body maybe wasn't best for this job. He could feel all the muscles trying to work but failing. He just doesn't have the same energy and strength as his younger-selves.

"I'm sorry sir."

The Doctor opened his eyes to see a boy, no older than 14 standing in front of him. He was more shocked that a boy that age was in here than he was talking to him. Talk about stolen youth.

"Sorry, did I take your spot?" He struggled to get up. "I can ..."

"No, sit down." The boy said.

He looked at him again and slumped back down.

"I hear you are the Doctor."

He blinked up at him for a moment before remembering that he was meant to respond. "Why?"

The boy sat down in front of him, crossing his legs. "I hear you are a legend. Well my mother told me stories about you."

By this stage, the Doctor had already concluded that he wasn't human. He couldn't be because of the atmosphere. But he was really stumped to who this boy's mother was. Unless there had been some interbreeding.

The boy continued. "She would tell me about my … wait, great great great great great … great grandmother and grandfather and the adventures they went on with you. I am hoping that this regeneration is after that one. Their doctor liked wearing tweed and a bow tie. My great grandmother always said that he said that bow ties were cool." He paused for a second. "Technically they aren't my great grandmother and grandfather because they had to adopt a child. But I like to think I am related.

The Doctor chuckled. "Oh Ponds." So maybe Amy's afterword was right. Maybe they did have a happy life. He did worry about them.

The boy smiled. "I am part human, part Menoptera."

He looked at him weirdly.

"It must have been a while since your saw our kind. We don't look so ridiculous any more. I would have earned my wings this year, if I wasn't in here."

"I had thought that this was an adult prison."

"There are a few juveniles, not many but there are some. I … I am in for theft."

"There must be more to it than that. This is the worse prison in the universe. You are here with murders."

"It was a black market. The Judoon thought that I was working for them instead of stealing. That's why I have a harsher sentence." The boy looked up at him. "Your eyes. Your body is old but your eyes, they are even older."

"That's what living for two thousand years does to you."

He didn't pry any more. He didn't know his name or his age or how long he had left. There was a part of the Doctor that hoped that they would cross paths again, whether it was in prison or outside, he didn't know. He just hoped he would see him again.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 25, 19:40 (Sentence Done: 2,652,000 seconds (1mnths and 10hrs))**

He could hear the guards outside but he didn't know whether to shout for help or not. He had seen some many people die. He had cause as many deaths. People being brave for him. People doing what they think is right to keep others alive.

"Keep holding on." The Doctor whispered.

Diabol was losing strength. All he could hear was the Malmooth shallow breaths. He hadn't given up just yet. He could save his friend. Because that was what he was, his only friend in this godforsaken place.

He ran to the door and tried to open it. If he could get what he needed, he could save him. The door wouldn't budge and he ran over to his coat. He couldn't remember if the guards had taken his sonic screwdriver away from him and came back disappointed when it wasn't there.

"We all have a set amount of time in this universe. Mine is up."

The Doctor turned to the dying man. "You didn't ..."

"I know." Diabol got out before a coughing fit rattled through his body.

He was back by his side, holding on to a cup of water. He gently brought it to the dying man's lips.

"Come on. You could complete your sentence. You chickened out." The Doctor said.

Diabol just shook his head and even he knew that the movement was hard for him.

The door of their cell opened and the Doctor didn't know whether to be relieved or scared about the Thal's presence. He just leant against the door frame.

He swallowed his pride and anger. "You run this place. It is easy to see that. You could get the things I need. Please will you help us."

If anything, the Thal looked more confused about the plea for help and he was starting to wonder why he did it. It must have been a pitiful sight. The Doctor kneeling on the floor next to the Malmooth that has been slowly dying for longer than he has been in there.

"Please. I have already lost too many people to lose any more."

It sounded desperate but everything he had just said was true. He had watched a lot of people die, friends, family, enemies. Every single one of them filled him with sadness.

The Thal smirked at the Doctor before turning his back and closing the door, the lock sounding loud around the room. That was his last hope.

"Sleep Doctor, there is nothing more you can do."

The Doctor didn't do as he said. He sat next to him all night, explaining adventures that he had been on with his number of companions. Why did he keep calling them companions? Some of them were so much more than that. They were all his friends at the end of the day. It wasn't right to label them as just being a companion.

He didn't know what time Diabol died but he was dead by the time the guards came and got him in the morning for breakfast. It was going to be a bad day for the Doctor.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

She knew he was up. He had risen at the same time as her. He had got dressed and sat on the sofa about nine o'clock. It was now nearing three and Clara was certain that he hadn't moved. The tea she had made him was stone cold and the sandwich laid untouched. She had been marking all day and hadn't realised his behaviour until now. She thought he was getting better.

She took the chewed pen out of her mouth and placed it on the side. She really should get out of the habit. She ended up throwing most pens away because of it had broken in her mouth rather than they had run out.

Clara walked over to him and knelt in front of him. His gaze was fixed on his hands in his lap. She took them gently into hers.

"Hey, are you forgetting that you need to eat again? Look you didn't drink the tea I made you this morning either."

She let him take his time and couldn't help her eyes 'inflate', as he would call it, as he looked at her with tear-filled eyes.

"What's up Doctor?"

"Ponds." He said after a while.

Clara closed her eyes. She knew how much he was affected when they left him. She didn't want to start to think how he would be if she left him.

"Why did I just call them Ponds?" He said, voice full of emotion. "They should have been Williams. Well that was Rory's surname. I don't know how he just took it. I mean I stole his fiancée on the night of their wedding and took her off to show her the universe. She kissed me and I almost allowed it. I mean Amy would always love Rory, he had no competition but he must have felt a little jealous." He paused for a moment. "Do you think that is why PE wanted us to stop travelling together? Did he see me as a rival?"

She just shrugged. It was a plausible assumption to make. Maybe Danny was jealous.

"Chinny wasn't for tradition at all. What was he even? I must have gone through a mid-life crisis. They say regeneration is a lottery but … He was a manchild. A fashion disaster of a toddler. Bowties were bad but the fez. Why did I think fezzes were cool? And he was always tripping over things. I don't know how I didn't regenerate by tripping over."

Clara smiled. "You still do sometimes. I have seen you." She tapped their hands on his legs. "It is because these are too long."

His smile got wider when he saw hers.

"I know that you said that I shouldn't but I do remember some of the things that happened to my echoes, one of them being Oswin. That must have been when I met you the first time. You were with Amy and Rory. I distinctly remember telling Rory that the first boy I ever fancied was called Rory." She paused when the Doctor raised an eyebrow at her and allowed a small giggle to fall from her lips. "Then I told him that actually, she was called Nina. I was going through a phase. I really don't know what she was on. She was bonkers."

"She was a dalek." He laughed.

"Thinking about it now, that is why you are so angry all the time. And it is not just your attack eyebrows."

"Why? Go on then tell me your theory." He said, his voice becoming more Scottish in places.

"That."

He looked at her trying to work what she meant.

"I told Amy, as Oswin, … or did I ask you. Details don't matter. I said that Amy was too angry and she said that someone had never been to Scotland."

"I did say that not long after I regenerated. That I could really complain about things now that I was Scottish."

"You still miss them don't you?"

The Doctor moved his gaze back into his lap and gave a series of short nods.

"It is okay to still miss them. Amy was a big influence on Chinny. She was the first face that face saw."

"As you are the first this one saw."

She saw his eyes glaze over at the statement. He was the one to say it but she could tell that he had to say it at a worse time. Maybe it had something to do with the Thal. He didn't really go into much detail about him other than he was the bully of the prison when he arrived.

He had told her little bits but she could tell he was still keeping the majority of it hidden. She didn't understand why. She always knew that it would be best for him to talk about his time. She could see that he was and still is ill because of it. His mental state was and always would take longer to heal than his body but she just wished that he would open up a little more.

"Maybe that is why you are Scottish. Because of Amy."

The Doctor smiled widely. "Oh Clara Oswald, how you can always make me smile."

She brought his hands up to her lips and kissed his knuckles without thinking. She rubbed her thumbs along the part she had just kissed.

"Because that is what friends do."

"I don't deserve you."

"I am sorry but I am exactly what you deserve."

They both smiled at the memory.

"Those were easier times weren't they?" She asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"I like to think that they were easier."

His smile dropped and Clara realised what he was thinking. It may have been easier with his younger face. She never once argued that he wasn't her boyfriend with that face because it was easier to think that way. It took her a while to realise it but she loved the Doctor. Whether the face was young with a bowtie or sandshoes or old with a war torn face or attack eyebrows. They were all the same man underneath it all. Same alien underneath it all. Same man, different face.

Maybe what Vastra said to her did hit home a bit. The Doctor did wear his own veil and she was glad that he felt so safe with her that he could lift it. She had always regretted her actions and words that followed his regeneration. She hated it took her that long to see it. She had even been in the same room as three of them at one stage.

"I … I met a descendant of the Ponds while I was … you know." He started. "He isn't or wasn't blood related, I will get to that part later. But he was good as."


	13. Chapter 13

_Thank you for the reviews. I am getting them through email and they do make my day._

 _Right now, back to Ankou._

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

 **Ankou, Day 475, 15:40 (Sentence Done: 49,431,200 seconds (1yr and 6hrs))**

If there was one thing that he had to do while he was on Ankou, it was that he had to eat every meal to have the strength to get through the day. The last thing that the Doctor wanted to do, however, was to eat. He played with the food in front him.

It probably didn't help that he had just got over from aspirin poisoning, which he was convinced was put into his food.

He could see Clara's face glaring down at him. He stabbed the food with his fork and lifted it up to his mouth but then dropped it back down to the plate. He could hear her telling him just to eat, that he wouldn't be strong enough to carry on if he didn't eat.

His stomach growled loudly and he placed a hand over it as it protested. He wished he could trust that the food wasn't laced again. He wanted to eat. He wanted to get back to Clara as well. It had taken him long enough to get over it.

There was something else that the Doctor didn't trust. He was already on his third room mate. His second room mate hadn't lasted long at all. It probably didn't help that he kept himself to himself. The Doctor had wished the Diabol had lived for longer.

His third room mate was humanoid. He didn't bother asking which planet he was from. He came in with his chest puffed out and 'laid down the rules'. The Doctor had just scoffed at him and mentally placed a bet on how long he would last. He just seemed too sure of himself to last too long.

But then the Doctor had a time when he seemed too sure of himself, making mistakes and missing things.

The chair in front of him scrapped along the floor and the Doctor winced at the sound. He looked up to see the Thal in front of him.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"A pact."

The Doctor eyed him up. Other than at the beginning, the Thal had left him alone. He had just thought that he had got bored of him and found someone else to bully. He had hoped that he had forgotten about him.

"A pact?" The Doctor repeated.

The Thal cocked his head to the side. "A pact between us. I … I need your help with something." He looked around before leaning forward. "I need a doctor."

The Doctor looked down at the table. He knew what that meant. He thought he was dying and soon a new leader will emerge. The Thal seemed to have them all organised. Him and his gang would only pick on the troublemakers. All hell could break loose with him gone.

"In return, I will try and keep you safe. My boys are at your disposal. Anybody you want ..." He looked around again. "Sorted out. Just tell me. I will sort them out."

The Thal held out his hand and the Doctor saw how it shook. He raised his hand and shook it to save the Thal from any more embarrassment. The Thals were as stubborn as the Daleks. It must have took him a lot to come over and ask for help.

"Eat. It will be cold now but still edible."

The Doctor looked at the plate in front of him.

"Don't worry. I have personally made sure that all aspirin was removed from the kitchens. No idea why it was in there in the first place."

The Doctor just nodded before taking a mouthful.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 476, 2:60 (Sentence Done: 49,468,900 seconds (1yr, 13hrs and 20mins))**

Each time he was rudely awaken, it was when he was dreaming. He wasn't one to usually dream but he thought it was his mind trying to help him get over what was happening to him by remembering the better times. He knew it would get better when he did get out of there. When and not if. He was going to finish his sentence.

The Doctor grunted as he hit the floor. It took him a while to work out what was happening but he quickly realised when he was held up against the wall and a well aim punch hit him in the gut. He tried to fight back but soon other members of the gang held him up to the wall.

His eyes moved to his room mate, who was awake and staring at the sight in front of him. Part of him had hoped that he would help him but it inevitable that he wasn't going to. The cell was just dark enough for the gang to remain anonymous. The Doctor hoped it wasn't the Thal's. The deal would be off if they were.

He screamed out as one of the guys holding his arm, twisted his wrist with inhuman strength. He grabbed it has they let him go and he fell straight to the floor. The gang laughed as they left and the Doctor tried to commit the sound to his memory. He would try and seek them out in the morning. See if the Thal would keep his end of the deal.

The Doctor tried to get up but found that all his strength had left him. He struggled on the floor and part of him, again, hoped his room mate would help.

It wasn't until the guard entered to wake them for breakfast, that the Doctor managed to get off the floor. The guard grabbed his arms and roughly pulled him up. It was enough for him to fall back against the wall and find his bearings.

"Breakfast now." The guard ordered.

The Doctor pushed himself off the wall and made his way as quickly as he could to the canteen.

* * *

It wasn't good. The Doctor already knew that but on closer inspection, he knew that today was going to be painful.

He used his uninjured hand to check his ribs and felt that two of them were broken on his left side and three on his right. Broken ribs wasn't too bad. He had broken ribs before. There wasn't much he could do to fix that. He just had to let them heal naturally. He just hoped that they would heal right and quickly.

He hadn't had the confidence to look at his injured hand. He placed it on the table and winced at it. He started to inspect it before looking around at the people in the canteen. Someone had managed to break his wrist by just twisting it. He could see and feel that the bones were now out of line. He had no idea how he was meant to work.

He pulled the hem of his shirt to his mouth and managed to make a small rip in the fabric before he yanked it, ripping the bottom away from the rest of his shirt. He twisted his hand back to be in line with his forearm and wrapped it up as tight as he could. There was very little he could do. He just hoped that work wouldn't be painful.


	14. Chapter 14

_Thank you all for the reviews._

 _My new favourite thing is when my own readers pick up something that I hadn't previously thought of. I had another reason to why (explained in this chapter) he doesn't eat proper meals but the food poisoning could also be seen as a reason._

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

She could feel him hovering outside before she could see him. It was weird to still see this awkward side of him. It was like he thought that he shouldn't be there, like he was intruding.

Clara realised that it was probably that. He hadn't really settled down since he left Gallifrey all those years ago with his granddaughter. This was the first time he had stay put. He felt like he was intruding on her life while he was recovering. He probably just wanted to be inside the TARDIS, floating about in space.

"You can come in." She called out. "You don't have to hover at the door like a naughty school kid."

She heard him huff before the door open wider and he pulled a chair up to the desk, opposite her. She hadn't looked up from her marking yet. She knew that she would forget what she wanted to put if she did.

"I hope you haven't eaten just yet."

Clara quickly scribbled the comment in her red pen and looked up at him. "I was going to get something from the canteen in a bit."

"Well I have brought you lunch." He said holding up the Tesco bag.

"Oh Doctor, you shouldn't have." She gave him a small smile when she saw his drop. "I meant you didn't have to. It is a lovely gesture."

"Well, Kate came round and gave me a debit card. Apparently because I am still on the pay roll, they have been paying me since the 70s. They have just been putting it all in one account for me. I need some way to spend it. It would just sit there otherwise. As I seem to be grounded at the moment."

Clara wanted to argue that he didn't have to be grounded but it was the safest option for him at the moment.

"Just because you are grounded, doesn't mean that it has to be boring. Wait for the summer holidays. We will find something to do for those six weeks."

He placed the items from the bag onto the table and she realised that he did take notice of her. He handed her a cheese and tomato sandwich with salt and vinegar chips and a can of coke.

"I couldn't remember if you had diet or not."

"No, I don't have diet. My understand is if it doesn't have sugar in it, what does it have in it." She opened the sandwich. "Thank you. We should do this more often."

"I could come everyday."

"Where did you go and get this? Just there isn't a Tesco around here."

"You always head right out the gates. If you head left, there is one down there."

"I will have to remember that."

She took her time to study him. There was still something off and she just couldn't put her finger on it. He wasn't as skinny as he was but she would love to get him eat something other than bread. Her classroom was brighter than her flat and she only just saw them. Four little dots of skin lighter than the rest of his hand. She made a note to herself to ask him later.

* * *

Clara stabbed her fork at her pasta before bringing it up to her mouth. The four dots on the Doctor's hand had been bugging her all day. She held her fork just above her bowl. She looked down at it.

"Doctor?"

"Yes Clara."

"Is …" She asked apprehensively. "Is one of the reason you don't like using cutlery … is because you were attacked by one?"

He subconsciously rubs his fingers over the four dots and she knew she was right. She cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner. She waited for him to answer her fully.

He chuckled. "I never realised that it could be used like that. In that environment though, you had to come up with more … imaginative ways to hurt your … opponent or whoever had annoyed you."

She wanted to know more but it was hurting her to hear it, probably as much as it was hurting him to say it. She knew that his mind felt lighter because of his more carefree attitude but they still had a long way still to go. Clara knew it wouldn't be a quick fix but she had hoped that he would have opened up more than he had done.

"I mean, they did become imaginative." The Doctor continued. "They would find a weapon in anything and everything. It was … It was the Zygon that was the worst. You would never believe how easy it was for him to take someone's eye out with a teaspoon."

She grimaced as she imagined it. She could just picture the eyeball flying out at the same time as the teaspoon.

"Sorry."

"Doctor, stop apologising. You have nothing to apologise for." She got out of her seat and sat next to him. She grabbed his hand. "As I am sure I have said before, I want to understand what you went through. I want to understand why you returned to me as the shell of the man I knew. I want to understand so I know the best way to get you back on your feet.

"I want you go get back in your snog box and fly away and find a planet that you think we should explore together. I want it to go to what we had before you went to Ankou. I want my friend back."

She watched his lips curl into a smile as he took in her words.

"What if I don't want you to understand? What if I don't want you to know what I went through? What if I don't want you to have that burden as well?" His eyes fill with tears with each question.

"I know you trust me. I know … I understand that it is painful to talk about. But I know you will tell me in your own time. I know that you will understand that I do only want to help you. I want to ease that burden off you. You served time for a crime with both know you didn't commit. That alone is a horrible judgement. It is hard for me to hear, but trust me when I say it will get better the more you talk about it."

"When did you become a counsellor as well as a teacher?"

"When I started to bottle things up."

He smiled down into his lap.

"You don't have to tell me now. Just when you want to, I am all ears."


	15. Chapter 15

_Thanks for the reviews._

 _To the guest review, no I am not against those types of reviews. Sometimes you guys see where I have maybe unintentionally put in a piece of information that I didn't realise was important. It helps me out as well._

* * *

 **Chapter 15**

 **Ankou, Day 4,750, 9:40 (Sentence Done: 494,000,000 seconds (10yrs))**

They weren't that sympathetic. The Doctor watched as the guards dragged his last room mate out the room. He was trying to work out how much someone must have gone through to be that heartless. He may have been a criminal, but he deserved some respect.

The Doctor sighed as he leant against the wall as the door closed. He was sure someone else was going to join him soon but he used it as a time to reflect.

The Thal had lasted longer than the Doctor thought but still, like everyone else it seemed, he lost strength quickly. The day they signed him off from work was the day he went downhill. He had paled that night the Doctor had seen him. He died a few days later.

Fights broke out pretty quickly to find the new top dog. He stayed well away from them. He didn't want the power. The Thal's men had tried to get him to fight but his plan was to keep his head down and then he might just make it out.

A Zygon won in the end and now 'rules' the prision. The Doctor still didn't believe that the prisoners ruled the prison, just the guards got away with thinking that. It was probably more entertaining for them to see them fight amongst themselves rather than fighting them. If they did all club together, they could rule the prision.

The door opened and his new room mate walked in. The Ice Warrior looked at the Doctor and laughed.

"I heard you had travelled for many years but I didn't realise that you were an old man. The infamous Doctor. Always travelling, always meddling. Not such a big guy are you now."

"Nor are you for being in here. What you in for then?" He sensed the Ice Warriors reluctance. "Everyone will find out eventually."

It was the only thing he had managed to keep secret. There were only a handful of people that knew the true reason he was in. The rumours spread of course, but they were always far fetched.

"They dishonoured my family. They got exactly what they deserved."

 _Murder then._ The Doctor thought. He knew that the Ice Warriors were high on honour, as bad as the samurai.

He could tell that he was going to ask the question back but was glad for the knock on the door. He would escape the question for now.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 4,750, 10:00 (Sentence Done: 494,002,600 seconds (10yrs and 40mins))**

If the Doctor thought that the Thal hated him, then he was sorely mistaken. Everyone had taken to the Zygon's takeover expect for a small group of people, the men that the Thal trusted the most. The Thal had told them to look after the Doctor and they did that to the best of their ability. The Doctor believed that that could be the only reason. The Zygon saw him as a threat.

So it worried him when he saw his new room mate trying to make his way to the top quickly. The way that the Zygon was turned to look directly at him, he knew it wasn't going to be good for him. He was, unfortunately one of the few that knew what he was in for.

The nod from the Zygon made the Doctor panic and his head quickly turned to see if the men that promised to look after him were about.

He was soon to find out that it was the wrong thing to do because as quickly as the Doctor had turned his head back, one of the Zygon's men was behind him, pushing him down into his seat, and the fork had been taken out his hand and put through it. The Doctor gritted his teeth against the shooting pain.

He couldn't look at it and tilted his head back so that it was out of his peripheral vision. He tired his best to smile up at the Zygon.

"See, he does bleed like those human he loves so much."

"Well there are 20 million of you lot living peacefully among them."

The Doctor was sure he had just said the wrong thing. If nightmare situation was raised now, it was his own fault. Not that he was sure how this Zygon could communicate with the Zygons on Earth. He was slowly believing that anything was possible.

"Look, just because my predecessor left you some of his men to look after you, doesn't mean that you are going to make it out alive. I will personally make sure of that. You still have a while on your sentence. I will make sure that the 20 million Zygons on Earth don't co-exist with humans, when I get out." He said, spitting the word humans.

The Doctor wasn't quite sure why but he smiled. He was remembering watching the two Kates, Osgoods and McGillops work out the peace treaty. He tried to not remember any further than that. It would only hurt him even more. But he did.

"I died a very long time ago."

Maybe it was true. Not talking about his first face going to his second, but he died because of what he thought he had done. Clara was right that day, no one else would have the guts to even make it look like their home planet had been destroyed. He carried the weight of it for two regenerations. Even the thought that people still thought that he had done that killed him.

Maybe it wasn't that. Maybe a part of him died every time a companion left him. Not companion, a friend left him. He had lost many friends over the years and they all hurt in different ways.

He hissed as the Zygon pulled the fork from his hand and threw it at him. He waited for him to turn around and leave him before he lifted his hand off the table to rub it and inspect the damage. He quickly wrapped it up in the same shred of his shirt as he did his wrist.

The Doctor was left wondering when it all went so wrong.


	16. Chapter 16

_Thank you for the reviews._

 _To the guest review. The piece of shirt that he uses is the same piece he wrapped around his wrist when it was damaged a few chapters back and he just kept it afterwards just in case he needed it again. And the time on Ankou will jump around more now._

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

"Clara?"

She turned around to see Adrian jogging down the hallway towards her. She really owed him for so much.

"Adrian. How can I help?"

"Are you going to Prom?"

Clara laughed as they started walking towards the staff room. "Of course I am. I go every year. I definitely wasn't going to miss out on this years."

He creased his brow. "Why?"

"Why I go every year or ..."

"Why you wouldn't miss out on this years?"

She sighed. "Well, I know that they miss, or at least to begin with, Danny as much as I … well still do. He taught them more than just Maths and they helped me through when I needed someone most. They at least deserve to see my bad dancing." She started to giggle but stopped when he didn't join her. "What's up?"

"What are you going to do with the Doctor?"

She was really confused by his question. The way he said it, it was like the Doctor was a kid that needed full time supervision. Sometimes he may require that but not now.

"I am hoping that he might come with me. I haven't asked him just yet."

"Well you might be out of luck. The tickets need to be brought ages ago and I am pretty sure that they sold out."

"I always buy two just in case. It is all sorted."

"Wouldn't it look … a little weird?"

"A few of have met him and it would be good to get him out and about. I know he is but he really needs to get his confidence up before we go off, gallivanting among the stars again." She started to ramble before she caught on to what he meant. "No, it wouldn't look weird. We will be going as friends."

Adrian caught her arm and pulled her towards one of the classrooms. He shut the door and sighed before he started talking.

"I am worried about you. I mean seriously worried about you. You haven't been the same since he got back. He is relying on you too much and it is taking its toll on you. He isn't good for you, Clara. You need to let him go."

Clara could sense that it was something he had wanted to say for a while and he actually felt better for it.

"But I can't. I can't let him go. I understand that you care for me and yes I haven't been the same since he got back, but it can't be as bad as when he left me. The thing is we need each other. We were put together and weirdly, I think the universe wants to keep us together. He is relying too much on me but then I rely on him too much as well."

Adrian turned from her.

"Believe me when I say this, I did try and give it up once. The Doctor had given Danny a way of coming back from the dead. He didn't take it but the Doctor thought he had. I lied to him and told him to go back home to try and leave that world and life behind. It lasted from a few weeks after Danny's death till Christmas. I can't let him go. You must understand that."

He turned back to her and gave her a small smile before leaving the room.

* * *

"Just thought I would warn you, I am going out Friday night."

"Anywhere nice?" The Doctor asked.

All of a sudden, Clara felt nervous. It was only asking the Doctor if he would go to Prom with her. It wasn't a big deal. She just didn't want to go on her own when she was sure that everyone else would be bringing a partner. Actually she was sure that most of the teachers were bringing a plus one.

Then again, it was the Doctor. The man she had fancied since he turned up on her doorstep dressed as a monk. She didn't know which way he would take it and it kinda worried her. Maybe it would be best if she did just go on her own. He wasn't the best with parties. But he could dance and really well and she …

Clara bit the bullet. "Oh, it is just the year 13 Prom. Nothing too exciting but I go every year. I just remember how my prom was and just want to relive it with my students. Anyway just I always get a spare ticket. You know. The tickets sell out fast, even for the teachers and you have to buy one for a partner. So I always buy two just in case over the course of the year I somehow manage to get a boyfriend. I don't when I would have the time to find a boyfriend. I mean I am teaching or marking or travelling through time and space. I had thought once to ask you. It was a long time ago but ..."

"It would be a pleasure to go with you." The Doctor interrupted her rambling.

"Really?"

He nodded. "Really. You can stop explaining yourself now."

She smoothed down her dress to try and push the nerves out of her. Was she reading to much into his answer?

"Thank you." She said. She was sure she was blushing.

"Well, wouldn't want you to be … what do you humans call it? When you feeling like you in the middle of a couple? You told me that I did it to you and PE once."

"Third-wheeling?"

He clicked his fingers. "Yes. Wouldn't want you to be third-wheeling now, would we?"

She laughed at him. He was so innocent sometimes.

"We need to get outfits."

He turned to her. "Clara, it is on Friday. I thought you girls had these things planned out months in advance."

"I just never found something I like. But I know of one place that I know I will find one I like."

"You cannot keeping using the TARDIS as a way of getting cheap clothes. You never bring them back. And you wondered why she hated you."

"She hated me because like you, she didn't understand how I could have died twice already." She pouted at him. "Please."

She allowed herself to smile when he told her to come on. He argued that they should get the outfits sooner rather than later. Clara knew what she was going to do. She was going to try and keep him inside as long as possible by insisting that she had to try every dress she liked on. Anyway she would pick the one he liked the most.


	17. Chapter 17

_Thank you for the reviews._

 _Right back to Ankou and the Doctor's hardships._

* * *

 **Chapter 17**

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 1:40 (Sentence Done: 740,958,400 seconds (14yrs, 18mnths, 4wk, 4d and 12hrs))**

There had been a weird atmosphere around the prison for a few weeks. The Zygon had kept his promise and had made the last few years living hell for the Doctor. The Doctor felt bad for it but he was happy when more people joined the prison. It meant he had a few weeks of relief from it all before the Zygon was back on his case.

The Zygon believed that he was breaking the Doctor but he knew that he had a lot left in him. He had someone to go back to. Someone to stay sane for. He couldn't break. Well, not this soon.

He should have been prepared for something. It felt like the Zygon had forgotten about him and the Doctor had fallen into a false sense of security. He thought that he had maybe found someone else to bully. He really should have been watching the Zygon more carefully.

The cold water awoke him with a gasp. He had already been dragged out of his cell by the time he had realised what was happening to him. They descended a number of staircases and the Doctor had very little idea of where he was being taken. The light from one of the moons vanished but he already knew that it wasn't time for him to be up.

He was lead down a row of cells that didn't look like they were used often. One of the cells near the entrance was opened and he was thrown in. The door shut quickly behind him and the Doctor took in his new surroundings.

It was a box room with white walls. The room was lit by one light in the centre of the celling. There was literally nothing else in the room other than himself. There wasn't even a bed.

The Doctor scratched his head as he tried to understand why he was there.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 3:00 (Sentence Done: 740,966,200 seconds (14yrs, 18mnths, 4wk, 4d, 13hrs and 40mins))**

Solitary confinement. That is what the Doctor had come up with in the one and half hours that he had been in the white room. He sat, leant up against one of the walls. He was still trying to work out why he would be put in there.

So he was surprised when the door opened and one of the younger guards walked in and put a tray of food down in the middle of the room.

"Why am I in here?"

The guard jumped at his voice and turned. "We are not meant to speak to you."

"Well you have now and I think I deserve to know why I am in here."

"You don't just get put in here for nothing. You know what you did. The guard is still recovering from your attack."

The Doctor stood up to try and defend himself but the guard had scurried out the door by the time he had got to his feet.

He didn't know why he did it but he spun around and punched the wall. He growled as he did it before hissing as the skin of his knuckle broke. It must have been the Zygon. He cursed himself for taking his eye off him.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 4:40 (Sentence Done: 740,974,000 seconds (14yrs, 18mnths, 4wk, 4d and 15hrs))**

If there was one thing that the Doctor had found out in his short time in solitary confinement, he didn't do well with silence.

He never realised how much background noise there was in the universe or was it just how much noise Clara made when she was around. She was always tapping on something or asking a question about something or her laughter.

But even when she wasn't about, there was the noise that the TARDIS made. His longest travelling companion. She would always look after him.

He just hoped that he wouldn't be here too long.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 6:00 (Sentence Done: 740,981,800 seconds (14yrs, 18mnths, 4wk, 4d, 12hrs and 40mins))**

"3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582 ..." He said, out loud.

He had to do something to distract himself from the silence.

"… 02841027019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756 …"

The only thing he could not do now was think.

"… 17488152092096282925409171536436789259036001133053054 ..."

Well not about pi.

"… 61173819326117931051185480744623799627495673518857527248 ..."

He could go on for a while like this. It was a good thing.

"… 892354201995611212902196086403441815981362977477130996 ..."

If there was one thing he could not think about …

"… 031378387528865875332083814206171776691473035982534904 ..."

… was Clara.

The Doctor stopped speaking. "Clara." Now he wouldn't stop thinking about her.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 7:40 (Sentence Done: 740,989,600 seconds (14yrs, 18mnths, 4wk, 4d and 18hrs))**

He was sure he was going crazy now. There was only so much silence he could take. He felt like he had been there for years. Not 6 hours.

He had tried not to think about Clara but it just came up onto him.

He started to wonder how she was coping, whether she hated him for sending her back without a proper explanation, how long it had been for her.

The Doctor stood up suddenly and started to pace. He needed to think of something else. Anything but Clara. It hurt to much to think of the pain he may have put her through because he had to do this. It didn't care to him what the reason of the universe thought. Clara knew that he was innocent. She had been there by his side. She had been the one to change his mind that day.

He spun around as he thought he heard her voice call his name.

He hoped he wasn't going to be there too long. He might just break. It was something that he couldn't do. Not now. Not if he wanted to get back to Clara.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 7,125, 9:40 (Sentence Done: 741,000,000 seconds (15yrs))**

He was muttering to himself. He was sure of it. He was doing anything that would cause a sound into the silent, white room. He was even scuffing his feet along the floor, a trait that he was trying to get out of Clara.

He groaned. There he was again. Thinking about Clara. He needed to be doing something. He couldn't be thinking.

"Hello Sweetie."

The Doctor laughed before turning and hugging River. He had never been so happy about hearing those words. Or any words to come to think of it.

"Never would expect this welcome from this face."

"I am just so glad to hear a voice other than my own." The Doctor confessed as he let her go.

"Well your prison seems to care more about security than mine. Took me a little longer to get in." She said as she took in the room. "Pretty bland isn't it?"

"So how long has it been for you? Since I last saw you?"

"Couple of years give or take. You?"

The Doctor could feel River watch him as he looked at his bracelet. He knew that it had been more than a couple of years for him. "I believe 15 years today. That is 30% done."

"It does get better."

"It gets better?! It gets better! You at least can show the world that you are innocent. Me being in here shows that you are innocent. _My_ innocence? _My_ innocence is lost with _my_ planet. You … You can do what you like. You can leave your prison. I could die here. This could be it. The end of the line. It would be so boring for it to be. I always imagined it so different." He sighed when he finished.

"You have Clara waiting for you."

"Well she shouldn't. Please tell her that."

"No."

The Doctor looked up at her.

"Because it is giving you strength. She may be your weakness but she is what is getting you through this." She turned towards the door. "Oh, just one thing." She turned back to him when she reached the door. "If you ever need me. Whether that is someone sane to talk to or just you need a helping hand, just return back here. I will find out."

"This isn't something I want to go through again."

River smiled at him. "Maybe you will have to." She winked at him before leaving him to the silence once more.


	18. Chapter 18

_I will admit now, this chapter was purely written because of my love for the song that I have included in it. But after the last chapter, I think we need something a bit lighter._

 _Thank you for the reviews._

* * *

 **Chapter 18**

He finished tucking his shirt into his trousers before doing up his belt buckle. He didn't know why but he felt nervous. There was going to be so many people there, it wasn't like it was just going to be him and Clara. He walked over to the bed and looked at the waistcoat lying on top of the covers. Should he wear it or not?

Clara came into the room at that point and watched him for a moment as he stared at the waistcoat. He brow was scrunched up in confusion and she allowed herself to smile. It was the side of the Doctor she always loved seeing. It was a side that she didn't see often but it just showed her how beautiful he was.

"You going to put it on or just stare at it?" She said as she walked further into the room.

"Don't you think I will look a little too fancy?"

"It's the one with the red back, isn't it?"

The Doctor nodded.

"I love it. I would really like you to wear it."

He smiled before putting it on. He didn't do up the buttons straight away but looked at her for her approval.

"You wouldn't look right without it." Clara said. "Do you mind doing me up?" She turned around to give him her back, moving her hair out of the way.

She felt him gently pull the zip up and closed her eyes to try and remember the way it felt. It was something she was doing more of lately. Trying to remember every single touch that they shared. She really couldn't remember her initial reason to why she started to do it but she knew that she was scared that he would turn back into his 'I'm not the hugging type' persona again.

"What do you think? Hair up or down?" She asked as she turned back to him.

She didn't know why she asked him because he probably didn't care or wouldn't take note of her anyway.

"Up. Like when we were in Victorian London with Vastra and Jenny after my regeneration."

Clara blinked up at him for a few moments before smiling. He did take notice then. Why did it never seem like he did?

Then she remembered his words at Christmas. _'Clara Oswald, you will never look any different to me.'_ Maybe he always noticed.

She sat down at her dressing table and got everything out to put her hair up that way. She got the waistcoat, he could have her hair the way he wanted it.

She watched in the mirror as he did up his waistcoat and started to look around.

"Where's my coat?"

"On the back of the sofa."

She smiled at how domestic it all seemed.

* * *

The Doctor stood up as Clara came into the living room. All words were lost to him so he opted just to hold out his arm and smile at her.

They walked out the door and down the stairs from her flat before he spoke.

"I don't really understand it. It is a student prom. Why do teachers go? And what is a prom in the first place?"

Clara laughed before she started to explain.

* * *

The Doctor sat at the empty table as he watch Clara dance with her students, or former students now. He could just about hear her laughter over the noise of the music. She had explained that it wasn't the thing to do and that there were their just to supervise really but she liked to get into the swing of things. Apparently she liked to show them that even though she was a strict teacher, she could let her hair down as well.

He turned as the chair next to him scrapped along the floor.

"Long time, no see." The boy said. "I was one of the kids on the school trip when the forest grew over night. I am Bradley."

"Nice to meet you again Bradley."

"I can't really remember the last time she was like that. Not that she ever was like that. It was probably before Mr Pink died."

The Doctor looked back at Clara. "It was unfortunate. I was just starting to like him as well."

"You should tell her how you feel."

He turned back to Bradley. "Sorry?"

"I don't care how much older you are than her and I don't think she cares either. You both care about each other a lot."

"We are just friends. Probably the best of friends. She is the person who knows me best in the universe."

Bradley leant forward. "Look, a student that had come to our school to do sixth form asked Miss Oswald what her favourite story was. Obviously being an English teacher, you would expect that she would have one that inspired her. Do you know what she said?"

"Pride and Prejudice. It is her favourite book. She has asked many times to go and met Jane Austen."

"Surprisingly she didn't. Everyone in that class that knew her thought that she was going to say that but she started to talk about a man that had a spaceship that was a police box, who stops the monsters and aliens from attacking. When asked what weapon he had or superpower, she replied with he didn't like weapons so carried around a screwdriver so he could fix things and didn't need a superpower but had an extra heart."

The Doctor blinked a few times.

"Sound familiar. Everyone who went on that trip caught on immediately. You are her hero and I think that it is more than that."

Bradley patted him on the shoulder before leaving him. The Doctor didn't really understand what he was trying to get at but he thought he got the gist of it. He thought, like a few other people, that he and Clara were more than friends.

"What did Bradley want?"

He looked up at her and pulled out the chair next to him for her to sit down.

"I know that I didn't say it earlier but you look beautiful tonight."

Clara was sure she blushed in that moment. She had been waiting for those words to fall from his mouth for a while and it just felt even more special because he had said it. She leant back and rested her head against his shoulder. He shifted a bit and ended up draping his arm over her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. She closer her eyes and enjoyed the closeness between them. She felt him place a kiss into her hair.

She opened her eyes to see one of the students talking to the DJ and looking over at her. She wondered what was happening but then laughed as the song started.

 _Oh don't you dare look back  
Just keep your eyes on me _

She sat up and grabbed the Doctor's hand before getting up. "Come on, one dance please."

"No, Clara."

"Yes. Please."

He allowed her to pull him up and he couldn't help but feel like the guy in the song.

 _She took my arm I don't know how it happened  
We took the floor and she said_

"Just relax." Clara said before starting to sign along with the song.

The Doctor just laughed as he followed her.


	19. Chapter 19

_Thank you for the reviews._

 _And we are back to Ankou._

* * *

 **Chapter 19**

 **Ankou, Day 8,788, 6:40 (Sentence Done: 913,884,400 seconds (18yrs, 9mnths, 1wk, 4d and 17hrs))**

He had heard the crash and the shouts but no one had really reacted to it. It was the sort of thing that happened. It wouldn't be ignored if the guards were in trouble, but it didn't matter if the prisoners died, it just meant a few empty cells until another ship arrived.

A few guard ran past as the commotion was finally heard. He tired to see what was happening without looking suspicious but it was a little hard when the chains around his ankles clicked together.

They carried on working for a bit, raising the axes and bring them down to break the diamonds out of their encasement. There were a few more shouts before two guards came up to the Doctor.

"He will do." One guard said as he bent down to undo his chains.

The other guard already had a grip on his upper arm and pulled him roughly towards where the shouts came from. One of the tunnels had collapsed and he could heard the shouts of the prisoners stuck on the other side. The guards pushed him towards it.

The Doctor turned to them. "Sorry, what do you want me to do about this?"

He felt the but of a gun hit the small of his back. He grunted as the pain shot up his back.

"You need to get as many people out as possible."

He knew when he said people, he meant guards. He took another look at it and saw the small hole in the rubble. Small enough for him to fit through. He had noticed that he was skinnier than most of the other prisoners. Clara would probably call him sickly thin. She was always trying to get him to eat more.

He was pushed towards the hole before he tried to get through. It was a bit of a squeeze but he managed to get through. He could hear as they started to try and move some of the rubble to get people out.

It was carnage in there as everyone was thinking of themselves. One of the guards shouted at him to help them and the Doctor felt obligated to help them. The guards on the other side had made a bigger hole and the guards made their way out. The Doctor started helping the prisoners, using some of the rubble to crack their chains.

A few managed to get out before a rumble rocked the tunnel, making him look up at the damage. It didn't look good and he knew it was going to collapse more than it already had. It made him try and work faster until one of the prisoner pushed him away.

"Get out. It is going to fall."

"I am not leaving without trying to save as many people as possible."

"You have someone to go back to." The Ogron said. "Make sure you get back to her."

He wondered how he knew but it seemed everyone knew that he had Clara to get back to. "We are just friends. She has probably forgotten about me anyway."

He laughed. "But you haven't and I doubt that you have stopped loving her."

The Doctor opened his mouth to reply but was pushed back by the Ogron. He coughed as the rubble stopped falling, the dust of it catching in the back of his throat. He lied there for a bit until one of the guards came in to see what had happened. He looked around and he was the only one there.

"Might need some help in here."

He wondered what the guard was on about until he saw that his right leg had been trapped under the rubble. At that moment, he felt the pain shoot from it. He wondered why the body had a delayed reaction but he knew from where he was it wasn't good.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 8,788, 9:40 (Sentence Done: 913,900,000 seconds (18yrs, 9mnths and 2wks))**

He didn't know whether it was because he had helped out or the fact that he was injured but he was extremely grateful for the two guards that practical carried him into his cell. He knew that he would get no respite from work. He had to be up on his right foot before lunch.

He lifted his ankle up and examined it. It was bad and he knew that he wasn't going to have a hope in hell of walking on it. But he tired anyway. The Ice Warrior wasn't back just yet and he knew that he would get a bit of time to himself. It was something that he didn't want an audience for.

He hissed in pain and gritted his teeth together to try and get through it. He shouted as he sat down. It was too painful and he had no idea how he was going to sort it out.

The Ice Warrior came in at that point.

"Get over yourself. That is nothing."

The Doctor snorted. He was in his own armour. He wouldn't have felt a thing if he went in there.

He needed to find something to support it. Maybe he could walk then. It would still be painful but it would cause the ankle any more damage. He slid off his mattress and pulled it over his head. He was so glad to see that the bed had wooden slats. He used his elbow to break one before putting his mattress back and managing to get back up on it.

He could sense that the Ice Warrior was wondering what he was doing. The Doctor managed to break the slat up even more to make a number of splints. He was glad that the wood was thin and old. It broke easily. He took out the ripped piece of his shirt.

He undid the laces of his boot and slipped the splints into his sock before securing them to his leg with the piece of fabric. He pulled his boot open as much as possible to get his ankle back in to it. Once he had tied the laces back up, he tried to walk on it again.

As he thought, it was still painful but less. It would help having it supported and hopefully his body would repair it right as well. It was the only thing in being in this prison. His body would heal that within days of it happening but he was sure that it would take weeks. He had no idea what was happening but he was sure that the bracelet had something to do with it.

The Doctor sat back on his bed and leant against the wall. He thought about all the people that would have been killed because of that tunnel collapsing. It hurt him to think that he couldn't have saved them. It would have been easier if he had his sonic screwdriver.

He waited for the knock for lunch. But it never came.


	20. Chapter 20

_Thanks for the reviews._

 _To TheQuestionGirl. The reason for the inverse lettering is sometimes due to the speed that I try and write at mixed with my slightly dyslexia and sometimes I just forget how a spell a name so I just do it as I think I remember it. I do read through before I post the chapter but I don't always see mistakes._

 _And back to the present day for a lighter chapter._

* * *

 **Chapter 20**

"Adrian." Clara said when she had opened the door. "What can I do for you?"

He held up her bag. "You left this on the table last night. I picked it up to give it back to you but you had already left at that point."

"Thank you. I totally forgot about it. I don't know why. It has my purse and phone in it." She took it off him. "Do you want a cup of tea or something as you have made the journey here?"

"I should, umm …"

"It's a cup of tea. Your marking will still be there when you get back."

"Tell me about it." He said as he entered, wiping his feet on the mat by her door.

He followed her into the living room and stopped when she did. He watched the Doctor as he flicked through a book before putting it back onto the shelf and picking up the one next to it and repeating. He was also humming a song that Adrian couldn't just put his finger on.

"Shut up and dance." The Doctor sung quietly.

"You know, it would last long if you read it normally." Clara said.

The Doctor jumped before turning around to look at them. He had obviously not heard them and the startled look on his face was quite amusing.

"What's the point in reading a book you have already read? I was just reminding myself of the story."

"Really?"

"You need to expand your collection." He turned back to the shelves. "Actually I know this planet that was a library. A whole library on this one planet. It was amazing. I visited there once. I was with Donna at the time, so it was sandshoes that was … anyway it was amazing. Can you imagine it? A planet full of books. Books are the greatest weapon we have. I definitely learnt that there. Although we probably shouldn't go there."

"What was the problem?"

He turned back to Clara and raised an eyebrow.

"What? You were there. There had to be a problem." She crossed her arms. "Name me one time when you didn't run into trouble."

The Doctor opened his mouth before closing it and turning back to the books. "There was a small problem with the Vashta Nerda. The Vashta Nerda were microscopic, swarming carnivores before you ask. You know that one time when we had that power cut when we were in that laboratory and you said 'Hey who turned out the lights' and I told you never to say that again. That was because of that situation." He sighed heavily. "It was also the first time I met River."

"Why do you say it like that? Was it too much flirting for you to handle?"

"Our time lines are out of sync. They go backwards. The first time I met her, was the last time she saw me. She said I was hard work when I was young. I don't know about that though."

Clara was a little taken back by what he said about River. She put herself in her shoes. It must have been horrible for someone that you know really well to know nothing about you. It must have killed her to be around him, knowing all the adventures they would share together.

"Tea?"

The Doctor nodded before turning his attention back to the books.

She dragged her hand through her hair before walking towards her kitchen.

"How do you put up with his ramblings? I didn't understand half of what he just said."

Clara flipped on the kettle and leant against the counter. "You get used to it in the end. You develop selective hearing so you hear the important bits but zone out for the rest. He does it all the time. I don't when he is explaining a plan or talking about a planet like that. I find it one of the most beautiful things in the universe."

Adrian decided to move the conversation on. "Where were you half the night? I saw you dancing then you disappeared. As I said, I went to look for you when I found our bag but someone told me that you had already said your goodbyes and left. I had hoped to see you for more than five seconds."

She gripped onto the worktop behind her. She knew from their last conversation that he wasn't going to like her answer but she just hoped that he still wouldn't be in the same frame of mind.

"I was with the Doctor. We went outside to get some fresh air and he started to talk about all the consolations he could name and … we just lost track of time. I was getting cold and we both thought that it was time to go home at that point. So we did. I did try and find you to say goodbye but I couldn't find you."

"Look, I am just asking you this because I just want to know but what is the Doctor to you? Because part of me thinks that even you don't know."

"No Adrian, it is the most easiest question. He is my best friend in the whole universe." She remembered what she told Danny. "He … he is the closest person to me in this whole world. He is the man I will always forgive, always trust. I told Danny that. Well that was before I knew it was Danny. He was a cyberman."

"That sounds like more than a friend. Even a best friend,"

"Do you not think I know that? I know how close our friendship is to being a relationship. If you had asked me two Christmases ago, I would have probably called him my boyfriend. Well, other people would have called him my boyfriend and I wouldn't deny it. But I know that it would never, ever work out between us. It would only end in my broken heart."

"Why would you think that?"

"Haven't you seen him? He is impossible."


	21. Chapter 21

_So we are back to Ankou for this chapter and you might want to keep an eye on the times. This chapter does bounce about a bit._

* * *

 **Chapter 21**

 **Ankou, Day 9,500, 4:40 (Sentence Done: 987,974,000 seconds (19yrs, 18mnths, 4wks, 4d and 15hrs))**

He hated to be back there but he needed to be. He need River. If there was one person who could get him out of here, even if it was only for a few moments then it would be her.

The Doctor paced the room as he waited. He had already been there for one and half hours. She must know that he was there by now.

He was starting to panic. His pacing increased. The room felt like it was getting smaller and it wasn't helping him.

It was a stupid idea. He shouldn't have put himself through this again. He couldn't believe how stupid he had been. It wasn't going to work.

He turned as the door opened. "You took your time."

"I didn't expect you to return to here again." River said as she leant against the open door.

"I need to get to Earth." He blurted out.

"Why?"

"I believe that Clara is in danger."

River shook her head at him. "You have put yourself through this because you think she is in danger. You have always been too close to your humans, haven't you?"

"Look are you going to help me or mock me?"

"I will see what I can do. Sit tight for the moment."

The Doctor could only watch as she exited the cell and shut the door. He went back to his pacing.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 9,500, 2:00 (Sentence Done: 987,961,000 seconds (19yrs, 18mnths, 4wks, 4d, 12hrs and 40mins))**

He was dreaming again but this one was different. It wasn't a memory. He couldn't ever remember it happening but it felt real.

The only thing he could see was the black smoke that surrounded him. He could feel his lungs fill up with it. He started to cough violently from the intrusion. Even though it felt real, it didn't feel like he was seeing it through his own eyes.

The person spun around in panic, trying to find away out. It wasn't looking good as the flames seemed to get closer. A name fell of the person lips as if it was some sort of prayer. Whispers of Doctor over and over again until it blocked out the roar from the flames approaching.

The body fell as it ran out of oxygen and the Doctor sat up suddenly in his prison cell. His breath was harsh as her's had been in his dream. Was it a dream or was it happening or happened?

He could feel his body starting to settle back down from the dream. It was also when he noticed that the Ice Warrior was watching him. He wasn't going to let this down easily.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 9,500, 3:00 (Sentence Done: 987,966,200 seconds (19yrs, 18mnths, 4wks, 4d, 13hrs and 40mins))**

He knew what he had to do. He had to see her. He had to make sure she was alright. He had to save her if she needed saving. It was his job. He had a duty of care.

He did everything as he normally would. He walked over and got into the line and picked up a tray. He looked around and saw that the guards weren't paying any attention. It was a good thing.

The Doctor tapped the tray against his leg before getting out of the line and heading towards one of the guards that was on his own. He would have gone for the group but he didn't want to be told to jog on before he could do what he wanted.

This was to make sure she was alright. He would be fine.

He was thankful that the guards didn't wear any helmets. He raised the tray and struck the guard on the head. He hit him a few more times until he was restrained by the rest of them.

* * *

 **Earth, 26th June 2017, 11:38am (2 years since the Doctor's Trial)**

He couldn't thank River more. She had managed to help him out and he took a few minutes to breath in the smells surrounding him and feel the light breeze against his skin. It was so nice to be back on Earth.

He looked down at his bracelet and saw that his time had stopped. He supposed it was only right. This trip would just be extending his stay.

The Doctor took in his surroundings before walking the familiar route toward Coal Hill School. He tried to reassure himself that it was only a dream and that he would see Clara teaching and then he would go back. He couldn't let her see him. It would only make him want to stay and that couldn't happen.

His stomach dropped as he arrived at the gates with all the children outside and the smoke rising from the roof. He ran through the crowd in search for a familiar face. When he couldn't see Clara, he tried another tactic. The one that looked like his last regeneration must still be there. He was glad when he did spot him.

"Where's Clara?"

The man stood flabbergasted.

"I think she is still inside." The student next to him said.

The Doctor turned on the spot and fought the people trying to hold him back as he ran into the burning building, shouting her name.

He ran down the corridors in search for her, his body temporarily shutting down his breathing. He stood in one of the corridors and took a deep breath. He was panicking. He couldn't find her. He tried to calm himself down but he just couldn't. He could feel the smoke starting to fill his lungs.

He ran towards her classroom in hope that he could retrace her footsteps. It was not far from there that he found her nearly unconscious body. She was whispering his name.

"It's alright Clara. I have got you. I have always got you." He said as he gathered her into his arms and ran back to the entrance of the school.

He didn't stop until he was down the stairs and he only stopped because his knees gave out under him. His relativity short time in prison had caught up with him and the adrenaline hadn't kicked in yet. The exhaustion hit him. He managed to get back up and walk a few more paces before he had to place her on the floor.

He took a few second to examine her. She was going to be fine. He tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear before forcing himself off the floor and over to Adrian. She was waking up and she couldn't see him. He had to leave.

"Look after her." He said to Adrian before finding some strength to run off.

He knew it was mean for her but it was break him more for her to ask him to stay.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 9,500, 4:60 (Sentence Done: 987,975,300 seconds (19yrs, 18mnths, 4wks, 4d, 15hrs and 20mins))**

He managed to get back in the room before he started coughing. He hadn't realised how much smoke he had inhaled. Not that it would take his body long to heal. He would be back to normal by the time he was released from solitary confinement in less than 19 hours.

Maybe River was right. Maybe he wasn't just too close to his humans, maybe he was turning into one. He had never be like this before.

Then he remembered that his body wasn't healing as it should be since he landed on Ankou. It was just that. He just had to get use to healing slower.

But it was pitiful. Broken bones were nothing for the Time Lords but it was taking the Doctor's body three weeks to heal. Still quicker than a human but slow for him.

He couldn't understand why the room was becoming darker until he realised that he was blacking out. He slumped against the wall as his body tried to heal.


	22. Chapter 22

_Back to Earth_

 _Thank you for the reviews_

* * *

 **Chapter 22**

The school year had finished and after an end of year assembly, which half the students didn't turn up to, school had finished. It was also the point where students came and thanked their teacher for everything that they did for them in that year.

Many students, some that the Doctor recognised, had come to say thank you to Clara. It was quite heart warming to see how many of the students actually adored her as much as he did. She was a good teacher and it made the Doctor happy that he couldn't convince her to travel with him full time. She was doing a great job here. He couldn't take that away from her.

He had come along with her because she had said that they should go somewhere afterwards and enjoy the nice weather while it still lasted. He was sure that they were going to 'accidentally' bump into Ian. It was something that he didn't mind. He had relied heavily on him to get them out of situations. Like the time he got into a dalek case so they could escape Skaro because of him.

"Hey, you're the guy that save Miss Oswald from the fire."

The Doctor looked up at the student and nodded. He knew that it was a statement rather than a question but he just nodded anyway.

"Well, I don't think I would have done as well as I did in English without her. Thank you for that."

"I don't think I would be the man I am without your teacher."

He watched Clara as she smiled down at her desk, trying to hide her expression from him. It was true though. She was his conscience for this face.

The student smiled at him before thanking Clara once more and leaving.

"I ..." She cleared her throat. "I think she might be the last one. We just having the last staff debrief for the year and then I am as free as them. Well, no really. I have to start planning for next year but I don't plan on changing anything from year to year unless the curriculum changes."

She gathered up the rest of her papers and placed them in her bag before motioning to the Doctor that they were leaving. He slid off the table and followed her out the door. They fell in step next to each other.

"That does remind me. I have never thanked you."

"What for?"

Clara looked up at him. "For saving me, twice."

He laughed. "Well I have a duty of care." He paused for a moment. "Maybe I also just want to be the hero you think I am."

"I am grateful for it. I could have died in that fire. I guessed it was you by your voice but I have never understood. How did you get out of, what I can guess, a high security prison to save me?"

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Solitary confinement. I … I met River before I left to Ankou. She said if I needed anything, I was to contact her. I didn't realise that it was what she meant. I made a couple of enemies in there. One happened to be a Zygon and he took my print to attack a guard. I can't even remember what I did to him to make him do that.

"Anyway, that was the first time I was put in solitary confinement and she came in and stopped me from going mad for a bit. She told me if ever needed her then to be put back in here. She helped me get to Earth. I don't know how she did it but she could."

"Couldn't you have just stayed? On Earth."

"River had set it so I could return as soon as I left, on the condition that I only did what I had to do. Time would have restarted itself and then they would have walked into an empty cell and then there would have been an intergalactic manhunt for me. What the consequence would have been, I do not know. It could have been doubled or I could have been put in there for life. If it is any consolation, I did want to look after you."

"I would have preferred it if you did." Clara looked down at the floor. "I would have been better than you just running off. I only just saw you."

"I couldn't allow you to see me. It hurt me too much to see you. I would never have found the strength to go back. Anyway I asked Adrian to look after you."

"I would have been better with you."

She could remember how she felt and how long it took her to recover. It may have only been for smoke inhalation but it would have been better with him by her side. Everyone treated her like she was made of glass. He would have fixed her up and then taken her on an adventure.

She turned to him and saw the look on his face. It wasn't a look that she saw of him regularly. He did want to be with her and it probably did hurt him to leave her like that, not knowing whether she was going to be okay or not.

They stopped just outside of the staff room. Clara rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

* * *

After a long chat and catch up with Ian, they finally made their way out of the school. Clara held onto his arm as they made their way back to her flat to drop a few things off.

"You know, just because you are grounded momentarily doesn't me we can't travel."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean just because we could go and see the Pyramids of Giza begin built or see the Colosseum in its heyday, doesn't mean that they are any less spectacular now. Look we have six weeks before I have to go back to work. We could go anywhere, see anything. Earth is our oyster at the moment."

The Doctor chuckled next to her. "So then Clara Oswald, where do you want to start?"

They talked all the way back to her flat about where they could go and do. They took an atlas and her 101 things to see as they left. They could find something to go and see.


	23. Chapter 23

_Right there has been a little change to the timings. Because he has now served over half his sentence, it is now what he has left. I have put what he has done in brackets but there is a reason for this which is explained in this chapter._

 _Thank you for the reviews_

* * *

 **Chapter 23**

 **Ankou, Day 16,625, 18:00 (Sentence Left: 740,955,800 seconds (Done: 35yrs, 8hrs and 40mins))**

The guards had just come around and the main lights had been turned off. The Doctor closed his eyes to try and rest his body for the few short hours he could.

It was hard. He was over halfway through his sentence. From now on he had done more than what was left. It should have filled him with some hope but it didn't. He could feel the weight of his stay increasing and few everyday tasks were becoming hard.

It didn't help the fact that the Zygon was still onto him. He just wanted to know what his problem was. Was it really that hard just to leave him alone to get on with his sentence?

Unfortunately, the Doctor hadn't had much grief from him recently and, once again, fell into a false sense of security. He should have heard the door open. He should have sensed that there was more than just him and the Ice Warrior.

The first indication that he got that something was wrong was when an arm came underneath his and he was pulled off the bed. He opened his eyes and groaned as his back hit the wall. The Ice Warrior was the one to get him out of bed but the Doctor could see the Zygon. It wasn't going to end well.

"Get off me." He shouted, hoping that a guard would walk down at the right time.

"Shut up." The Ice Warrior told him.

The Zygon walked over and lifted up the bracelet to have a look at it.

"You must be tired. Why don't you just give up? You're over halfway. Most people call that an achievement."

The Doctor tried to turn to look at him but the Ice Warrior had a firm grip on him. "Why would I want to do that? As you have said, I have done most of my sentence. I would like to complete it."

The Zygon laughed. It was obviously the wrong thing to say. With a tilt of his head, the Ice Warrior let him go.

What the Doctor hadn't seen was the Zygon's gang hanging by the door. He tried to keep his breathing normal but it was hard. The number of times he had been passed over to them was unreal. He knew how brutal they could be.

"Have your fun with him, boys."

The Doctor silently gulped as they walked towards him. He was too tried to even try and fight them.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 16,626, 0:40 (Sentence Left: 740,942,800 seconds (Done: 35yrs and** **11hrs))**

He couldn't really remember blacking out but when he gain consciousness, no one was about and he could feel the cold floor underneath him. He lied there for a few moments, just trying to work out if he was totally alone or not.

All he had to do was open his eyes, get up without trying to hurt himself even more than he already had been and to try and get some sleep before the guards woke him for breakfast. It was that simple.

The Doctor opened his eyes to the soft yellow glow of the landing lights. He groaned. Why was he in one of the corridors?

He tried to get himself up into a seated position but collapse back down and hissed in pain as he landed on his left shoulder. He tried to breath through the pain. His left shoulder had been badly dislocated. It must have been the reason for him to black out. It was painful.

He used his right hand to assess it. He tried to push it back into place but thought better of it. He traced down his side and suspected that he had two broken ribs on his left side and another one on his right. He bent his knees. His legs and ankles were fine.

The only problem was his left shoulder. He needed it put back into place. He closed his eyes to try and build up some courage.

"How did you get here?"

He opened his eyes and saw two guards standing over him. It wasn't going to be good.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 16,626, 1:00 (Sentence Left: 740,940,200 seconds (Done: 35yrs, 11hrs** **and 40mins))**

The guards had been kind and helped the Doctor put his shoulder back into place. They weren't the best in the world and he didn't know whether it was better back in or not. It still hurt a lot.

They had also been kind enough to throw him in solitary confinement. He could be the only person to ever go there. No one else seemed to.

He sat against the wall. He felt tired back in the corridor but now he couldn't sleep. It felt like something was wrong but he couldn't put his finger on what. He was sure he would find out soon enough but it wasn't the best feeling in the world.

The Doctor didn't understand why he was so surprised when River entered the room.

"You need to get to Earth." She blurted out when she saw him.

"What? How did you know I was in here?"

"I just did."

He got up and grimaced at the pain shooting through his left arm. He really need to remember about it.

"Why do I need to get to Earth?"

"You'll see."

* * *

 **Earth, 22th December 2018, 02:03am (3 ½ years since the Doctor's Trial)**

The moment he looked around, he knew where he was. He wasn't far from Clara's flat. He turned around to see the block behind him. He stared at it for a few moments. He wondered why he needed to be there. He went to turn around when he saw the bus go past and Clara standing up, leaning against one of the poles.

He watched her as she almost fell off the bus. He smiled and shook his head. She had obviously been drinking. They had got tipsy a few times while on an adventure but there had only been a few times when the Doctor had seen her blind drunk. He knew that this was one of those times.

She had not seen him and he hoped to keep it that way. He was still wondering why he was needed to be there when he saw the man come up behind her. He would have called out and told him to leave her alone but he had lost his voice.

He watched her try and struggle out of his grip. He was frozen to the spot. He didn't know what to do. He broke out into a run as the man started to drag her backwards.

Whether she would remember or not, the Doctor was glad that she lent forward. It meant two things. One, she wasn't going to see him and two, he was able to swing his good arm over her head and hit it into the guys throat. Once he had loosened his grip on her, he latched his arm around his neck and dragged him off.

He was glad that there was an alleyway not too far from where they were. Maybe it was the alley he wanted to take her down to … well it wasn't worth thinking about. It would have only made the Doctor more angry.

He was so glad that his right arm was still working. It would have worked better with two arms but he just about managed to do what he wanted. He pushed the guy up against the wall before giving him a sharp punch to the gut. He held him up by his throat, putting on enough pressure to make him panic but not chocking him.

"Sorry mate. Tonight you picked the wrong girl. She is under my protection."

The Doctor quickly jolted his hand into his neck, causing him to cough out and lean forward. He elbowed him in the head, causing him to be knocked unconscious. He knew that he wouldn't be waking up for a while.

He could feel her eyes on him. He turned and looked at her. There she was only about 20 foot away. He could have only taken a few steps and he could gather her in his arms. He could tell her that everything was going to be okay and that he wasn't going to hurt her. He wanted to take her back to her flat and lie next to her as she fell asleep.

He was glad that the shadows covered him. She was within arms reach but he couldn't allow her to see him. He would never return if she did. The Zygon was right. He was tired. He could very easily give up. He would have given up a while back. But he kept going for her.

So when she took a step towards him, he had to run in the opposite direction.

 _Not long now. You over halfway. It's not long. You have got over the worst of it._ He thought, trying to reassure himself.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 16,626, 1:20 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 740,938,900 seconds (Done: 35yrs, 11hrs** **and 60mins))**

"WHY?" He shouted, hitting his good hand against the wall. "Why would you give me a second chance to take me away from her again?"

He should have stayed with her. He didn't realise how much he needed her until now. She was his sanity at the moment. This is why he never stayed still and never travelled alone. He was dangerous.

He turned and slide down the wall. He looked up at the celling and pictured the stars.

"Why give it to me to take it away? What did I do to deserve this?"

He could do it. He could make it to the end.

No, He had to do it. He had to make it to the end. He had to, for her. For Clara Oswald.


	24. Chapter 24

_Thank you for the reviews_

* * *

 **Chapter 24**

Clara actually loved coming back to work in September after the summer. She enjoyed watching the new year 7s running around, excited to be at 'big' school and to see all the other students meet back up with their friends, even though they more than likely saw them over the summer.

"Morning." Adrian said as he joined her.

"Morning."

"You are way too happy to be back to work."

Clara laughed. "I love coming back. I wouldn't trade this for the world."

"Even for the Doctor."

"He stopped trying a long time ago to get me to travel with him full time."

"Did you have a good summer?" He asked, moving the conversation on.

"Yeah, we went travelling. We couldn't decide where to go so we hired a car, drove to Dover and hopped onto a ferry to France. We travelled around as much of Europe as we could. If we couldn't get a B&B or a hostel, we just slept in the car."

"I am guessing we is you and the Doctor."

"It was so much fun Adrian. He really came out of his shell. I think he might be back to himself. I don't know why I didn't realise it earlier but I think I can stay in one place as long as I do travel. That trip made me realise that was what I had done wrong when the Doctor was in prison."

She only realised that she had said something wrong when Adrian grabbed her arm and turned her to look at him.

"Wait what? Is that where he was? In prison? Clara what are you still doing around him? You brought him around the kids."

"Whoa, calm down."

"What was he in prison for?"

She sighed. "Adrian you have blown this out of proportion. Now this is going to sound bad but he was in there for a crime he didn't commit but we couldn't prove that he didn't do it. Trust me when I say that he is safe enough to be around."

"It does sound bad."

"He was in there for something that no one wants to be in control of. He was in there because he had to make a very hard decision that he blamed himself for many years."

Clara turned and walked away before she said anything else. She cursed herself for letting it slip. Adrian was already suspicious of the Doctor and that probably didn't help.

* * *

He hadn't heard her. She hadn't been particularly quiet either. Clara stood in the doorway of her kitchen watching the Doctor as he sat in the middle of the room, surrounded by her dismantled toaster. It had been the tenth time she had found him like that.

"It doesn't need an upgrade."

The Doctor looked up at her. "I am sure I can get it to toast quicker. This time I am sure it will work."

"No, I am going to have to buy myself a new toaster. Just put it back together but how it was. Please. No upgrade."

He grumbled to himself before going onto his task of putting it back together. Clara quickly put down her bag and joined him sitting crossed legged on the kitchen floor.

"Maybe you should call Kate. See if she has anything for you to do to occupy your mind. I am quite surprised that she hasn't asked for your help."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "I don't need to occupy my mind."

She raised her eyebrow at him and gestured to the dismantled toaster. "Really?"

The Doctor sighed heavily. The travelling had done him good as it did her but he had been more affected by them coming back. Clara knew that he didn't stay still. Well he hadn't stayed still since he left Gallifrey. Travelling and saving the universe was an addiction to him as it was to her, he was just more of an addict.

"This must be the reason why you don't stay still for too long."

She was sure that she saw a number of his barriers fall in that moment. They sat in silence for a bit. He would tell her. She knew that she couldn't push it. He had been through a lot but he still didn't want to tell her things. It wasn't that she wanted to know either. The few things that he had told her were awful and it was no wonder he came back the way he did.

He opened his mouth and closed it again. She moved closer to him and took his hand in hers. She rubbed her thumb along the back of his hand.

"I … I just don't know what to do with myself." He said eventually.

"I know."

"I don't do staying still and domestic life."

"I know." She repeated.

He looked up at her. "Can't we just steal a TARDIS and go travelling? I know where one is."

She laughed at him. "Maybe soon." She leant forward and kissed his forehead like he used to do to her. "Come on, you have a toaster to put back together and I have some marking to do." She stood up.

"It's the first day back and you already have marking to do."

"I accidentally left some there over the summer and I am meant to give it back tomorrow."

He smiled at her. "Well you better get on with it Miss Oswald."

She smiled back at him before going to find the papers she had brought home.

* * *

She thought he was getting better. She thought he was over the nightmares and flashbacks. She thought that they could go travelling in the TARDIS again. She thought everything was going to turn right.

He hadn't had one for a while and even though they still shared a bed, they didn't cling onto each other any more. Clara obviously slept every night and the Doctor had managed to go back to his normal routine of only sleeping when he had to. She still like how domestic it all was still. Maybe her impossible man wasn't as impossible as she thought.

He sat up. Clara woke up due to the movement. She opened her eyes to him muttering with his head in his hands. She could see that his breathing had increased.

She sat up next to him and started to rub his back. He tensed at the motion. She carried on doing it but couldn't help but feel disheartened by it. It was the thing that she feared most as he got back to himself.

He pulled back the covers and got out.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Go back to sleep. I will be fine." He said as he left the room, leaving the door open.

Clara dragged her hand through her hair. Part of her now wished that she never suggested travelling. He had got back his sense of adventure and wanted her to see that he was getting better so that they could fly off in the TARDIS together.

But it wasn't that simple and she didn't know how she could get that across to him. He would feel better if he just talked about it.

He was bottling it all up again and she was more scared that he was going to go backwards. She thought about getting up and following him but he would only talk to her when he wanted to. She couldn't force anything out of him.

Clara sighed as she lied back down. He would get there in the end but it had already taken longer than she had expected. Maybe the Doctor didn't always bounce back as easily as she thought.


	25. Chapter 25

_Back to Ankou_

 _Thank you for the reviews_

* * *

 **Chapter 25**

 **Ankou, Day 18,407, 5:40 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 555,770,800 seconds (Done: 38yrs, 14mnths, 1wk** **and 16hrs))**

It was hard to keep on going. Even if it was for her.

He tried to just go through the motions. Lifting up the pickaxe above his head, dropping it down onto the stone in front of him and repeating. Lifting it up, dropping it down. Lifting it up, dropping it down. Lifting it, dropping it. Lifting, dropping. Lifting … lifting.

The Doctor body was screaming in protest against the movement. His arms felt heavy and his vision blurred for a moment. He stopped and rested against the axe, trying to get his bearings. He didn't know whether it was his vision making everything move or it was him swaying but it didn't seem good.

He had only fainted a few times and that was under extreme circumstances. But with his body under constant pressure since he entered the prison, these were extreme circumstances.

He wanted to close his eyes but he dare not. If he was going to faint, he would just open his eyes to blackness. He concentrated on his breathing. In through his nose, holding it for a second, out through his mouth. In through his nose, out through his mouth. In, out, in, out.

He screamed as the whip hit his back.

"Get back to work. This is your punishment." The guard snarled.

He had to find some strength from somewhere or he knew that the guard wouldn't hesitate to do it again. His thoughts moved straight to Clara, to the way she stood and looked at him when he last saw her. The smell of her dying perfume. The way her hair framed her face. He remember the way she whispered his voice when he saved her from the fire.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the guard raise his arm. He found some strength and when back into the motions. Raising the axe, dropping the axe. Raising it, dropping it. Raising it, dropping it. Raising dropping.

He tried to fight the pain and tiredness. He tried to keep going on. His mind telling his body that it had to. He had to keep going.

The Doctor just watched as the axe fell out of his grip and felt his body fall towards the floor. He thought that he registered hitting the floor but he couldn't be too certain. He did, however, remember whispering Clara before he blacked out completely.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 18,407, 15:40 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 555,718,800 seconds (Done: 38yrs, 14mnths, 1wk, 1d** **and 6hrs))**

There were a few things that concerned him when he started to regain consciousness.

The first one was that he was on a bed. Not that he was complaining at all. It was great to be on something comfortable. Just he had expected that he would have awoke to the rough floor of the caves. So it came down to one of two things. Either he had been moved as soon as he had blacked out or a considerable amount of time had passed. The Doctor didn't know which one was better.

The second thing was that his head was spinning. He could have just put it down to the amount of pain he was in but something was telling him that it was that. It was also telling him that it wasn't because he blacked out either.

That led onto the third thing of the needles stuck in his arm. What was going into his body? Was it that what was making his head spin?

He heard a door open and he immediately made his eyes open. He closed them again as the light hit them. He swore that the lights in his cell wasn't that bright.

"Patient has regained consciousness and is responsive at 15:43."

The Doctor slowly opened his eyes, taking the time to allow his eyes to adjust to the light. He was sure that this cell was brighter than his. He took in the alien beside him, holding a cup.

"I thought you would be thirsty." He said, placing the cup on his lips.

He took time to study him. He would have mistaken him for a Silurian but the difference between them was his red skin. His hands were more like claws and he had to use both hand to hold the cup. When he turned his back, the Doctor could see the outline of wings.

"Qaiteock."

"Sorry?"

"Qaiteock. That is the race I am. I could sense that you were trying to work it out. There have been no interaction between my race and you, Doctor. But I have heard your stories. I had always hoped to meet you but I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Like wise." The Doctor tried to sit up. "I didn't realise that they actually cared for us."

The Qaiteock laughed. "No they don't. You were left where you fell and a few of your fellow prisoners picked you up and brought you here. They knew I was a doctor."

His head was still spinning. "What is a doctor doing in prison? You are meant to help and care for people."

"Some found my ways … a little unethical."

The Doctor flowed the needles from his arm to the bags suspended next to him. He hissed he pulled the needles out of his arm.

"What are you doing? You need them."

He pushed his hands out the way. He lied back down. " Acetylsalicylic acid."

"What about it?"

"It is aspirin." The Doctor could feel it go around his body. "It is deadly to me. How long have I been on it?"

"I am so sorry. I didn't realise. Is there anything I can do to help?"

A recovery coma was probably the Doctor's only shot of getting over it. "No you have done enough." He spat at the Qaiteock before closing his eyes and placing his body into the coma.

* * *

 **Ankou, Day 18,410, 15:40 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 555,406,800 seconds (Done: 38yrs, 14mnths, 1wk, 4d** **and 16hrs))**

The Doctor was happier when he woke up in his own cell. The lights weren't as bright and it gave him so comfort that his body hadn't been pumped with any more drugs that he didn't know about. He would still have loved to have found out who had helped him out.

And the doctor, the Qaiteock. He would have loved to have found out more about him as well. To know where he came from so that he could go and visit his planet. He could picture what he thought it would look like. He was tied between a rocky landscape or a jungle. He didn't know why but that was what came to mind.

"Ah, you are awake."

The Doctor looked at the door as a Sontaran entered. He gave him a confused look as he sat down on the bed next to his.

"You haven't heard the news. The Zygon and Ice Warrior tried to escape but, like on the great planet of Sontar, they were killed on sight. They reign no more. I hear that you would be glad to hear that."

He did let out a sigh of relief. It would be easier now to make it back to Clara without the Zygon breathing down his neck.

"You look like you have fought on the battlefield."

The Doctor started to laugh but it ended with him coughing. "I fell like it."

"Unfortunately you aren't like me. I can endure anything. Sleep for a while. I will guard you."

He was transported back to Victorian London and Strax. He noted to himself that they should go back and see The Paternoster Gang again.

Maybe it was because they were in the same boat but he was glad that this Sontaran was going to look after him. He was glad that the end of his stay could be like the beginning.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

She probably should have said no when the Doctor offered to cook her dinner for her birthday. Over the day she'd had flash backs about the TARDIS oven catching fire and the mess that he made and … really it was the worst idea ever. She remembered once coming back and finding her small flat filled with black smoke.

Subconsciously, she had started to tap her pen against her desk. The more nervous she became, the harder she tapped.

"Miss, could you stop that please?"

Clara blinked as she looked at her students looking up at her. She wondered how long she had been lost in her thoughts for.

"Sorry." She said as she put down the pen and the bell went. "Remember guys, you need to read the chapters before next week. Have a good week."

She sighed loudly as the last student left her classroom. All she had to do was to get all her things together and get back to her flat and she was sure all her nerves would settle. She looked around for one of her folders and groaned as she realised that she had left it in the staffroom earlier. She left her classroom and hoped that there was no one in there. She really needed to get back.

"Clara, good you are here now. Birthday drink?"

She walked over and picked up the folder. "I really should be getting back. You know, the marking doesn't do itself just because it's your birthday."

"Come on. It will only be one drink." Adrian tried.

She sighed. "Just a quick one then."

* * *

It was not great for her nerves. They had all ordered there drinks and some had gone up to get them while the rest of them had stayed at the table. Clara had tired to join in with the chat but she was more concerned about her phone and when it would ring.

She had rang her flat to try and tell the Doctor that she would be a little later home and for him not to worry and just to find out how he was getting on. But he hadn't picked up and she didn't know whether to take it as a good sign or not.

"There you go." Adrian said as he placed the drink in front of her. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you." She said as she took a big gulp.

They started to talk about a few things, mainly who they thought that the trouble makers would be and then the silent ones that they should keep their eyes on. Clara had lost track of the time and looked at her phone in surprise at how much later it was than she expected.

"I should really be getting home now." She said as she got up.

"Oh, are you still with your silver fox?" One of the teachers asked.

Clara couldn't understand why she was so shocked by the question. "Oh, no, it isn't like that. He is just a friend. More than likely my best friend."

The teacher winked at her. "Right." She said, emphasising the I. "Yeah, I know best friends that would run into burning building shouting there name, as if they were only friends."

"We are just friends and I really have to go."

* * *

The first good sign was the fact that there was no fire engines outside the building. The second sign was no black smoke hitting her as she opened the door. She was actually pleasantly surprised as his cooking filled up the halls. She breathed in deeply and followed it to the kitchen.

She watched from the doorway as he stood with the cutlery draw open. She took a quick look around and saw that whatever he had cooked, he had managed to get away with just using a spoon. He was getting better with that sort of thing but Clara now wondered that it was just in front of her.

"Need any help?"

He jumped at her voice and turned to look at her before the clock.

"You're later than usually."

"Yeah, the other teachers said that we should go out for drinks because it was my birthday. I didn't particularly want to go but it was only one drink." She leant against the worktop next to him and the open drawer. "Doctor?"

"Sorry. I thought I could do something wonderful for you on your birthday and as always I find a way of messing it up."

"What do you mean? It smells great."

He pushed the drawer shut, using a little more force than necessary. "Just I had hoped to do more for you."

"What makes you think that you haven't done enough?" She reached out and rubbed his arm. "Doctor, please."

He turned and faced her. "I'm still struggling. I thought I was doing okay."

"You don't always have to bounce back straight away."

"Clara, I have been back months."

"It doesn't matter."

"It does to me." He sighed loudly.

They stood in silence for a moment.

"You will get there eventually. I know you will. We will just have to … do some things to make it happen faster. The first thing to do is not to beat yourself up over it."

"What if I can't?"

"My family are coming over here, for Christmas. It was decided last year. So we have a deadline. We can fix you up and have a nice Christmas with no dream crabs or saving towns. Then, if it works, in the new year we can jump in the TARDIS and go and save some planets. It can be you, me and the TARDIS again."

"And if it doesn't happen?"

"I will cancel on my family and we will spend Christmas together."

He looked at her in horror. "You can't cancel on them for me. Christmas is a time to be with your family."

"Then we have something to work towards." She sighed. "Doctor, please believe me when I say this, there is no one else that I would rather spend Christmas with than you. Yes it would be great to see my Dad and Gran but I can see them whenever I want.

"You may have not like the last few months of being grounded and slowly healing but from the little you have told me, you have been through a lot. And from what I understand is you left a place that very few have managed to do. We all break sometimes Doctor. Maybe this was your time too. I think that you forget that I have seen the weight that you carry around."

"Oh Clara Oswald, I have never deserved you."

"I have never deserved you too." She moved towards the oven. "Now what is cooking because it smell great and I will admit, I am hungry."


	27. Chapter 27

_It is scary how close we are to the end_

 _Back to Ankou_

* * *

 **Chapter 27**

 **Ankou, Day 20,543, 9:00 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 333,528,000 seconds (Done: 43yrs, 4mnths, 3wks, 2ds, 19hrs and 40mins))**

He hadn't been back down into the caves since. The guards had given him the quick once over before regarding him as on longer fit to work. It wasn't really that hard to see really. He was so much weaker than when he entered and unhealthily thin. He could hear Clara telling him that he needed to eat more.

He rested his hands on his stomach and closed his eyes. He pictured Clara. He thought about her teaching or her manoeuvring the TARDIS or the excited look she would have as she entered the TARDIS.

The Doctor opened his eyes. That was the only problem with not going to work, there was nothing to stop him from thinking. He would get up and pace but the pain from his stay was unbearable. He spent most of his time lying on his bed, only getting up to eat.

He felt so tired. He had tired multiple times to fall asleep but there was always something keeping him awake. He wondered if he could put himself into a healing coma just to try and find a better use for the time he had got left. He had been told that usually once they were struck off work, it was quite soon after that they would die.

The Doctor knew that he wasn't fighting fit but he knew that he still had a lot of fight left in him. This was his wall. All he had to do was get over this part and then he can get back to her, back to Clara. She was the only thing keeping him going.

He tried to remember everything about her when he saw her at the end of the alley. The way that she was standing, the way that her hair framed her round face, the smell of her perfume, the look in her eye as she looked at him as he stood over the man that had grabbed her.

He could feel his eyes trying to close again and tried to force them open. He couldn't sleep. He had to stay awake. Anything could happen to him while he was asleep. He needed to stay awake.

Whether he managed to stay awake or not is irrelevant. He was probably sure that he was dreaming when he saw Missy standing at his bedside.

"Missy?"

"Come on. You have got old, man. Look at you. You have let yourself go. How are you meant to keep going like this?"

He kept giving her a confused look.

"You need to keep going. You need to be with your little control freak."

"How? How did you get in? How are you still alive?" He mumbled.

"Now that would be telling, love."

He rolled over to try and get up but couldn't find the strength to. Instead, he groped the air, just to try and reach her to see if she was there or whether she was just a figment of his imagination.

"If you are alive, why didn't you come to my trial? Why did you leave me on my own?"

She smiled at him. "Because you need this. This is what you have always wanted. You wanted to be punished for what you supposedly did. You didn't want to blame yourself no more. You wanted someone else to put the blame on you."

"What you did to me was punishment enough. The coordinates for Gallifrey were false. I opened the door to the stars. No Gallifrey. I believed you. For once I thought that you wouldn't lie to me. I thought that I could have trusted you that time."

Her smile dropped and she tilted her head as she looked at him. She sat down on the bed next to where he laid. He thought that she might be real as the bed dipped.

She brought her hand up and stroked his cheek. The motion wasn't on that he had expected for her but he took comfort from it anyway.

"Your control freak is waiting for you."

"I know." He breathed.

"So her Doctor needs to return to her."

"I am trying."

"You have come so far. It would be such a shame to give up now. World domination isn't such fun when there is no resistance."

The Doctor was sure that he only blinked but when he opened his eyes, she was gone.

He patted the place where she sat but couldn't tell if there was a temperature difference or not. There were other things that weren't right either. There wasn't the smell of her perfume lingering but it did smell different in the cell. The air felt like it had been disturbed. He had very little idea.

Was she there?

There could have been a possibility that she could have survived. After all she was a Time Lord, or Lady. They weren't very good at staying dead. It was an ongoing problem of theirs. But then this caused more questions.

If she was there, why did she come and see him? Why would she waste her time?

Was it all a dream?

This was the more probable answer to what had just happened. He was dreaming and his mind was just trying to give him another reason to carry on. Why better than the woman that supposedly put them together in the first place. The woman in the shop.

Was it hallucination?

This was the more worrying answer. Again it could have just been his mind giving him another reason to finish his sentence but it worried him how powerful of a hallucination it was. She seemed like she was real, that was why her being there or it was a dream were the better answers.

He lifted himself up and managed to swing his legs over the edge of the bed. He rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. His whole body shook with exhaustion.

He need this to end and sooner rather than later.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

They had been awake for a while but hadn't said anything or moved. The Doctor was better and Clara was still scared that after all that they had been through together, he was still going to go back to his non-hugging persona.

She moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest. He in turn pulled her closer placing his head in her hair.

He cleared his throat. "What is the time?"

She giggled. "Says the Lord of Time."

"You know how bad I can be."

She lifted her head and looked over his shoulder at the clock on the bedside table. "Just gone 5."

"What time did you stay you should put the turkey in?"

"I never did."

"Maybe you should put it in. You haven't got a time machine to cook it this time."

Clara looked up at him. "Yeah, I probably should." She reluctantly let him go and out of our bed.

He didn't want to make her get up but he still hadn't finished her Christmas present. He rolled over and got a book out from under the bed. She hadn't found it yet to his knowledge and he had hoped that she would like it. He picked up the pen from the bed side table and started to write in it.

* * *

Clara stood in the middle of the kitchen. "Turkey is in. Potatoes are on. Stuffing just needs cooking and the veg will go on soon." She muttered to herself as she went through her mental list.

The Doctor smiled as her control freak tendencies came to life. "How's it going?"

She turned around to him. "Good, I think. I am glad that you told me to put the turkey in when you did. It will more than likely be done when it should be but only just really."

He looked down at his feet. "Umm, I got you something."

"Doctor, I told you that you didn't have to."

He looked up at her. "I wanted to." He held out the book that he was hiding behind his back.

She took it from his hands. "I saw you drawing in this."

"The man in the shop thought I was crazy when I asked for a TARDIS blue book. Sometimes I forget that not everyone know what a TARDIS is."

She smiled at him. She opened the book and looked through the first few pages. They were all drawings that he had done of her. There was one of her teaching and another of her sitting on the sofa. The drawing soon stopped and she started to read what he had written for her.

"You want me to tell you. You say that it would be easier if I told you what happened. Just I can't. I can't tell you because I don't want to be reminded by it. So I have written down the things that I think you should know but don't. I will admit, it did make me feel better."

Clara closed the book and placed it on the counter. She rose up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

The Doctor responded by wrapping his arms around her.

* * *

Clara placed the turkey on the table and sat down. She had done it. She had managed to cook Christmas dinner again and everything was done on time.

"Dad, can you carve please?" She said as she sat up a little straighter.

Her dad stood up to do it when Linda spoke.

"Why can't your friend do it? As he has been living in your house, maybe he should have the duty of it."

The Doctor eyes flicked to Clara. They both gave each other a look of horror. He had only got used to using a blunt knife. There was no way that he was going to use a large knife without either freaking out or shaking the whole time.

"Dad's done it year to year. It's tradition. Dad's still head of the family." She argued.

"There's no need to put to poor man on the spot now Linda." Dave said as he started to do as he was asked.

Clara's Gran leant over to the Doctor. "She is just jealous because my granddaughter has finally managed to find herself a man that will look after her."

He saw Clara's smile out of the corner of his eye. "I would do anything for her."

The food was all served and Clara gave the Doctor's hand a quick squeeze in support as they all started to eat. They all made small talk about the weather and how Clara was getting on at work and little things like that.

"So how did you two meet?" Linda asked.

Clara had been waiting for the conversation to turn to them. "We meet … when I was at the Maitland's. The internet went down and he help me out."

Linda looked at the Doctor. "He looks a little old to know about that sort of thing."

"Oh, it was only a simple thing really. It didn't take a lot. I just turned it off and turned it back on again. It always seems to work." He replied.

"So how long have you been together?"

The Doctor and Clara looked at each other.

"What do you mean by together?" Clara asked.

"Linda." Dave said, slightly as a warning.

"Well, you have never mentioned him before. I just wondered if there was a reason why."

"No, no, no." Both the Doctor and Clara said together.

"We are just best friends." Clara said. She noticed that everyone had finished eating and started to clear the table. She listed the plates to take them into the kitchen.

"Good, we wouldn't want people to think that you had issues or anything like that."

"Linda, stop it." Dave said harshly.

Clara put the plates back on the table. "What do you mean by that?"

The Doctor stood up and moved next to her. "Clara, leave it. You know that she wants you to react." He whispered.

"You know exactly what I mean."

The Doctor turned Clara and pushed her into the kitchen as she opened her mouth. She tried to go back but he stopped her.

"What?"

"You are reacting exactly how she wants you to. Look, we know that we are friends."

"Don't you think we could be so much more?" She whispered.

"Oh Clara." He said before pulling her into a hug and place a kiss into her hair. "You know I have lost many people Clara. People that I have allowed to become embedded into my hearts. Those are the ones that affect me worst and I don't learn from my mistakes. You know what I was like after the Ponds."

Clara didn't say anything but hugged him tighter.

He sighed. "Of course Clara. You must have known that Chinny cared for you and I feel the same way. But if we were, I would never recover. I would never be able to let you go. I wouldn't know what I would do without you."

* * *

It was only one little comment from Linda that started off the argument again. The Doctor stood in the hallway as the shouted at each other. Usually he would have been able to deal with it. He would have just gestured Clara to come with him and then they could have gone on a quick adventure to clear the air a bit.

He felt frozen to where he stood. He remembered all the shouts of the other prisoners and the fights that broke out. He remembered when he had been targeted.

"You know what. I should have told you not to bother coming. Because I would have rather spent the day with the Doctor. Just me and him." Clara shouted.

The door slammed and Clara turned to look before running off after him. She hadn't realised what the arguing was doing to him and now he had decided to do what he did best, run. She jumped down the stairs in some hope of catching up with him but stopped at the entrance to the block as she had no idea which way he went.

She sighed before turning back to walk up the stairs to her flat. It was not how the day was meant to go and she was scared that he wasn't going to return.


	29. Chapter 29

_The penultimate chapter *screams*_

* * *

 **Chapter 29**

 **Ankou, Day 23,750, 8:40 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 104,000 seconds (Done: 49yrs, 18mnths, 4wks, 4ds, and 19hrs))**

The Doctor looked a the bracelet. The number looked so promising. He didn't have long now. He had been so strong for her.

But he felt so weak. He knew why people died in there. It was exhausting. His whole stay at just exhausted his body and mind. He was glad that he was as mentally strong as he was. It was probably the only reason that he had lasted to the end.

All he had to do was see her again. He didn't care if he died hours afterwards. As long as he saw her, he could die happy.

There was so many things that he did regret. He regretted not letting her know how he felt about her when he had his younger face. He regretted telling her that she wasn't her boyfriend. His last face was better with emotions.

Clara was definitely more than a girlfriend to him though. She was his everything. His better side. His moral compass. She had saved him so many times. She had saved him from the Dalek asylum. She brought him out of his grief for the Ponds. She had remained by his side even if she didn't see him. There were so many times she had helped him out.

 _'How many times have you saved me, Clara? Just this once, just for the hell of it, let me save you.'_ He remembered saying when he saved her from his own time line.

She would always be his saviour. Most of the time it was from himself.

The Doctor didn't even lift his head as the door opened. It wasn't just time yet for him to be put on a spaceship yet.

"Come on, look lively." The guard said. "You need to put these on. See them as a reward."

He looked at the man and saw the folded clothes in his hands. He slowly sat up to try and not open any wounds. He took the clothes off him.

"Thank you."

The guard left and the Doctor wondered how he was going to change into them. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and placed the clothes beside him.

He just about managed to lifted his foot up to undo the laces of his boot before slipping it off and doing the same to the other one. His trousers came off easily. He just stood up and they dropped off him. He couldn't look at himself as he struggled to get the clean trousers on.

His fingers fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. They wouldn't do what he wanted them to do. He did manage it in the end. Again the clothing fell off his body. This time, he couldn't help but look at himself. His chest and abdomen was littered with scars, marks and bruises from his sentence.

He quickly picked up the clean shirt and tried to button it up as quickly as possible. It didn't happen. He just had to stare at it for longer. He sat down and took a few deep breaths before trying again. He felt the pain rip through his shoulders. He was pretty sure the shirt wouldn't stay clean for long. A shower would have been good before he got changed.

The Doctor just about managed to pick up the other clothes. The shirt was an array of colours, it was yellow, black and red in places. His trousers had become frayed, he was just glad that they were black.

Two guards returned not long after he had finished getting dressed. One of them handed him his coat. He had noticed that it had gone missing and he had thought that he would never see it again.

They gestured him to get up and walk out the door but they ended up dragging him most of the way after the Doctor's leg buckled underneath him.

He almost cried when he saw the TARDIS. His oldest companion was standing there proud. He couldn't wait to get inside her and leave this place.

A man walked in front of the doors.

"I don't really get to say this often and after the last time, I had hoped that I would never say it again." The man laughed and the two guards joined in with him.

He walked closer to the Doctor and lifted up his wrist to look at the bracelet.

 _ **260 seconds left**_

"You have four minutes left." He said. "We can always make sure that I don't have to say those words."

The Doctor glared up at him. "I have been in here for near enough 50 years. Don't you think I deserve anything for going through hell and back?"

The man laughed again before nodding to the guards. The Doctor fell on the floor in a heap. He thought that he was dying. He could be dying. Time lords did take days to die.

He tried to get up but ended up trying to drag his broken body towards the TARDIS, his home.

 _ **130 seconds left**_

Once he got to the TARDIS he used it to help him stand up before rummaging into his coat to try and find his key. If not, he was sure that she would always open to him if he asked.

His fingers brushed the cool metal.

 _ **97.5 seconds left**_

The Doctor pulled out the key and placed it into the door. He didn't know whether he could go in or not.

He looked at the bracelet.

 _ **65 seconds left**_

"You can go in. You just won't be able to take off just yet. Good luck Doctor, I hope you enjoyed your stay."

He didn't even reply. He turned the key and pushed open the door.

 _ **60 seconds left**_

He fell straight onto the metal grate and couldn't really find the strength to get up. He was half in and half out. He had to get up.

He moved himself closer to the handrail and pulled himself up. He used it to walk over to the main console.

The TARDIS lit up at his return.

"Oh, it's good to be back."

 _ **50 seconds left**_

He flung himself at the main console and started to make his way around to the telepathic link. He wasn't strong enough to stand for a long period of time. He had no idea whether he could put in co-ordinates.

 _ **45 seconds left**_

"You know, it is annoying when time goes in the right order. How did you cope with it?"

The TARDIS hummed in reply.

He placed his fingers into the link when he reached it and just thought. He thought of Clara and Earth. He needed to go back to her. He had to be with her again. He had been strong for her.

 _ **30 seconds left**_

A screen came around to show him where she was. The dot flashing over Coal Hill school showed that she was at work.

He couldn't land at the school. Not in the condition that he was in. He couldn't disrupt Clara at work.

The Doctor went for another tactic. He thought about UNIT. Kate would be there. She would help him. She would return him to Clara.

A dot flashing over UNIT HQ showed that Kate was in. He could disrupt her at work.

 _ **10 seconds left**_

His legs gave way again and he just about stopped himself falling back down on the floor. He knelt and rested his head against the console.

"Never allow me to do something stupid again. I am getting too old for this."

He placed his head to the side to see the bracelet.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

The TARDIS came to life and started to groan as it took off.

 _Not much longer now Clara._ He thought

 **Ankou, Day 23,750, 9:40 (Till he can be reunited with Clara Oswald: 0 seconds (Done: 50 years))**


	30. Chapter 30

_Firstly, I would like to thank everyone that have reviewed this story. Every review made my day (it was good for when I was at work). I would then like to thank all the people that have followed and read this story. It is nice to know that people do like the stories I post._

 _So, yeah, this is the last chapter of this story. I don't know what more to say so lets get on with the story._

 _New stories will be up the week beginning 11th July_

* * *

 **Chapter 30**

Clara sat crossed legged on the sofa, watching the door. She wanted him to knock or walk back through it. She hadn't heard anything from him. It had been a few days since he had run off on Christmas and she was worried sick about him.

Kate hadn't helped when she called to tell her that the TARDIS had been taken. She had mentioned that there was hardly anyone at the base because it was Christmas and he just happened to pick the right gate, one with someone who was a big fan of the Doctor.

Clara lifted her phone to her ear and she attempted to call the TARDIS again. She rang it every hour on the hour without much success. She had hoped that the constant ringing would make him pick it up. She hung up as it went to the Answerphone.

"Where are you Doctor?" She whispered to her phone.

She just wanted to know where he was and just make sure that he was okay. She had realised her mistake. She was too busy with what Linda thought to pay him any attention. He didn't care what she thought and she shouldn't have either. They knew that they were best friends.

What he said to her was on her mind constantly. They could have been so much more. They could have eloped and got space married and … maybe everything else.

But that wasn't the Doctor, no matter how much he loved them. He would never say those three little words to her and she had given hers to Danny. She knew that they said it in other ways. They didn't need to say them.

Maybe she didn't realise how much he did dependent on her to being with. Maybe he has always dependent on her, and not just this face but Chinny as well.

Clara couldn't understand why all the others had voluntary given up that life but she was slowly seeing why they had. It demanded all or nothing. She didn't want to give it everything but she was addicted to it. She didn't want to let it go. All the time she could control it, it was fine. Maybe that is why she liked it so much. It did allow her to lose just a little control.

The noise of the TARDIS materializing made her smile. He had finally come back to her. She could have jumped off the sofa and run through the doors to him but she waited for him to come out. The door opened and she got up.

"Really? Every hour on the hour?"

"You weren't picking up. I didn't know where you had gone." She told him while giving him a worried look.

"How do you make your eyes inflate like that? I still don't know what your secret is."

Clara let out a short laugh. There was her Doctor, the one that she loved.

He looked down at his shoes. "I'm sorry that I worried you. I am sorry I left like that. I just … felt uncomfortable. Christmas is a time to be with your family and I know how important family can be."

She closed her eyes. Of course he would want her to be with her family because his family was lost on Gallifrey. He didn't know how they were or whether they were alive. He had left them behind when he run off with a TARDIS to see the universe.

"I know what you are thinking. Just because I don't have a family that you would call family, like blood relatives, doesn't mean that I don't have one. I have one on Earth. I will admit I … I have lost most of them along the way. You are a part of that family and always will be. I don't want to lose you. I would rather have the knowledge that you are on Earth, save, and moved on from this life than knowing that you are buried on some random planet or me bring your broken body back to your father because I couldn't get to you quick enough."

"What if I don't want to move on from this life? Doctor, you once told me that, and I quote, 'everything's dangerous if you want it to be. Eating chips is dangerous. Crossing the road. It's no way to live your life.' And you are right. I don't want to live my life that way. It is an addiction and you know it too now."

The Doctor smiled at her. "I am not the man that left you that day. I don't know who I am at the moment. I don't know whether I will make the same choices as I used to. I don't know whether I could be your hero again."

"Which makes it even more important that I come with you. You need someone by your side that will guide you and tell you when you are wrong. You need me as your carer."

"You really want to stick with me?"

She smiled at him. "Come on Eyebrows, show me the stars."

He laughed at when her echo had told him the same thing. Oh Oswin, how he wished that he could have helped her.

He step to one side to allow her in. She raced passed him and into a place that was safe for the both of them. He looked out of the window at the darkening sky and thanked the stars for Clara Oswald. He would be so lost without her.

He turned back and stepped aboard, closing the door behind him. He watched her for a moment as she stroked the central console, reacquainting herself with the controls and machine. He walked towards them and started to pull on a few leavers and press a few buttons.

"So where next?" Clara asked as she stood next to him.

He laughed. "Oh I am sure we will find somewhere."

The Doctor turned to her and smiled. This was where they belonged. Just the Doctor and Clara Oswald in the TARDIS. Just as it should be.


End file.
